George Soros Got His Money Through Smart Investing Over Several Decades

For decades, billionaire George Soros has been a boogeyman for Republicans who suggest that he is secretly behind everything happening inside the Democratic Party. While it's true that Soros has been a generous donor to various causes over the course of his life, relatively little time is spent in the realm of politics trying to understand how he became so wealthy in the first place.

Soros currently has a net worth of more than $7 billion, but how did he actually acquire it? Here's what we know.

Soros earned most of his money through various hedge funds, the first of which he set up in 1969. The first fund, which was called Double Eagle, provided the seed money for the launch of his second fund, Soros Fund Management, which was founded just a year later, according to his official biography.

The fund initially managed roughly $12 million, but that sum has ballooned to upwards of $25 billion over the decades, and constitutes the majority of Soros's net worth, according to Bloomberg. Basically, then, Soros made his money by being a remarkably shrewd investor after spending time working at a variety of merchant banks. While not every investment he made paid off, enough of them did, and often in extravagant fashion, so he was able to make a lot of money.

He is perhaps best known for his decision to short pounds sterling just ahead of the Black Wednesday U.K. currency crisis, a decision that netted him more than $1 billion through a single investment. The move earned him the nickname "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England," per Investopedia. While not all of Soros's investments were as flashy or successful as that move, it speaks to his ability to forecast economic trends to his own benefit.

George Soros's status as a boogeyman in Republican politics has existed for decades, as he has long been known as an unabashed donor to liberal causes. According to ABC News, though, prosecutors across the country have received orders to begin investigating the Open Society Foundation, which is the charitable entity that Soros uses to do much of his giving.

The investigation will apparently include probes into whether Soros has materially funded terrorism, committed wire fraud, and racketeering.

"This DOJ, along with our hard-working and dedicated U.S. Attorneys, will always prioritize public safety and investigate organizations that conspire to commit acts of violence or other federal violations of law," the Justice Department said in a statement.

"The Open Society Foundations unequivocally condemn terrorism and do not fund terrorism. Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and comply with the law," the Society said in a statement.

"These accusations are politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Amendment right to free speech."