Oxford University’s multi-million pound annual list of donors has revealed that two of the University’s major donors have been respectively accused of bribery and convicted of violating insider trading laws.
Three 2009 diplomatic cables from the then US Ambassador to Uganda, Jerry P. Lanier, released by WikiLeaks in 2010, contained allegations by rival British firm Tullow Oil that Italian industrial company Eni SpA had bribed senior Ugandan government officials.
Eni made a multi-million pound contribution to Oxford’s Saïd Business School in the 2009/10 University year. The record of donors who had given above £100,000 to the University in this period lists Eni as a donor who has given £1,000,000 – £9,999,999 to the University.
The cables Lanier sent to Washington DC claimed that Eni had bribed then-Security Minister Amama Mbabazi and then-Energy Minister Hilary Onek to favour Eni over Tullow Oil in the sale of recently discovered oil assets in the country. One of the cables read, “Tullow Oil claims senior Ugandan government officials were ‘compensated’ to support the sale of a partner/rival firm’s exploration and production rights to Italian oil company ENI.”
Lanier also said, “If Tullow’s allegations are true – and we believe they are – then this is a critical moment for Uganda’s nascent oil sector.” Onek is currently Minister for Internal Affairs. Mbabazi, the incumbent Ugandan Prime Minister, has been previously implicated in other corruption scandals. Both the two ministers and Eni SpA have denied all allegations.
A spokesperson for Eni SpA said, “We do not have anything to add to our position, which as we say we have already publicly expressed. With regard to our support for academia, Eni supports academic research at various different Universities around the world, including Oxford where our support is for scholarships, research and executive training initiatives.”
Meanwhile, George Soros, the famed investor and philanthropist, donated $5 million (around £3.2 million pounds) to the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), opened in April 2012 by Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton. Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School said that INET@Oxford will address “some of the greatest economic challenges we face.”
In 1989 the French stockmarket watchdog, Commission des Opérations de Bourse, concluded that George Soros had not violated insider trading laws, after he purchased a large amount of shares in Société Générale, a French banking group, just before its sale. The insider trading laws were amended in 1990 to include third parties, and Soros was convicted in 2002, the only one out of the three on trial.
The judges also ordered Soros to pay back the €2.2 million profits he had obtained from the share purchases and the following sale. The fine was reduced to €940,000 after a 2007 decision by France’s Supreme Court.
Following his conviction, Soros made several appeals to the European Court of Human Rights, basing his case in part on his claim that the law had been amended specifically because of him, and was thus unfair. The ECHR rejected all of his appeals, with the latest decision made in March of this year.
Michael Vachon, Advisor to the Chairman at Soros Fund Management (SFM), told Cherwell, “With respect to the Société Générale case, Mr Soros continues to maintain that he engaged in no insider trading.” Ron Soffer, his lawyer said, “The investigation started in 1989. The appeals trial occurred in 2004. How can you call witnesses and ask them about what happened in 1988?”
Soros has donated more than $8 billion (just over £5 billion) over the past 30 years to promote democracy, foster free speech, improve education and fight poverty around the world. He also recently declared that he would be donating $27.4 million over the next five years to the Millennium Villages program, a United Nations project based in Africa that aims to alleviate poverty.
Corpus Christi College’s £1 million auditorium was wholly funded by a donation from Saudi-Austrian businessman Sheikh Mohammed bin Issa al Jaber. Mr al Jaber is a UNESCO special envoy, and has backed female education in Saudi Arabia. His personal foundation, the MBI Foundation, has pioneered a scholarship programme that enables Israeli and Palestinian students to study together.
The MBI al Jaber Building was opened in 2009. In recognition of his gift, al Jaber was awarded an honorary fellowship by the college. Presenting the accolade, the University’s Chancellor, Lord Christopher Patten of Barnes, praised al Jaber as, “a man of the highest distinction in business and educational philanthropy”.
Other recent large donations include the £75m donation by Russian-born US citizen Leonard Blavatnik in 2010 towards the new Blavatnik School of Government, and £26m this year from Mica Ertegun, the widow of the founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun, to support postgraduate humanities scholarships.
In 2008, the University ran the risk of losing one of their most prominent donors after refusing to accept a £1 million, four tonne, ten foot monument of Conservative MP George Cooke, from Israeli multi-millionaire Zvi Meitar. The Times reported that the tycoon was threatening to withdraw his support after the University rejected his offer.
When vetting donations, the University takes into account donors who might be seen to have a “tarnished reputation”. Their policy states, “The University will consider gifts from that donor if the behaviour which led to the donor’s reputation being tarnished has clearly ceased.” The guidelines also include more specific regulations. For instance, donations from those “actively working in the tobacco industry” will not be accepted.
The University declined to comment when contacted by Cherwell.
[mm-hide-text]%%IMG_ORIGINAL%%5614%%[/mm-hide-text]
Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests made by Cherwell also revealed that during 2009-2011 there were 517 total donations made to the University over the amount of £10,000. 83 out of these donations were made wholly or partly to the Ashmolean Museum. This is over 16% of all donations made to the University.
Meanwhile, 74 out of the 517 donations made to the University were for the Bodleian libraries. In particular, donations were directed to the Bodleian Law Library. Most of the donations were directed towards a specific faculty (again the Faculty of Law achieved over 30 donations) and the larger donations towards larger institutions such as the Saïd Business School (there were three donations over £1 million made to the School).
However, some more specific donations were directed towards “the archiving of the Tolkien papers both at the Bodleian Libraries”, “for the Heberden Coin Room at the Ashmolean Museum” and “for the acquisition of the Kafka Letters to Ottla Archive at the Bodleian Libraries”.
Overall, the University has received 162 donations that are each over £100,000 in value. Donations of this size must first be approved by the University’s Committee to Review Donations (CRD), which, amongst other guidelines, ensures that donors have a good reputation and wholly genuine motivations. 356 donations of less of £100,000 each were accepted outside of CRD scrutiny.
In the majority of cases, the University has been hugely successful in attracting philanthropic aid. Oxford Thinking, the University’s fundraising campaign passed its initial target of £1.25 billion earlier this year, having currently raised £1.3 billion. Established in May 2004, this is the shortest time taken by a European univer- sity to reach such a target. 36% of this total came from previous alumni, with some of the most prominent donations emerging from those with no previous affiliation with the University.
Individual colleges are also capable of attracting similar sums. Cherwell reviewed the amount of money donated to Oxford colleges over the past three years and discovered that out of the college responses Christ Church received the highest amount in donations with an average of £1,278,500 donations a year. Balliol came a close second with an average of £1,125,500 a year and University College was third with an average of £1,027,750.
St John’s received a surprisingly low amount of donations, only receiving £188,250 on average over the past three years considering that their financial endowment in 2010 was valued at £313,319,000. Donations of over £10,000 to Jesus College increased from 17 in 2008/9 to 31 in 2009/10.
Christ Church JCR President Oluwatosin Oyetunji commented, “We have a very strong Alumni relations office, and I am glad to see positive results. I suppose people enjoy their time at Christ Church and are happy to donate after they leave.”
Correction: This article has been amended to accurately reflect the philanthropic work of Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. Cherwell apologises for any distress caused to Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber and the Trustees of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation by the original version of this article.
