More Musings on Legatum

Who is the impact investment financial group behind Jordan Peterson's ARC?

There are five main ‘arms’ of Legatum’s tentacles. Here I will look into just one of these (which are interconnected with each other and also with the other arms of Legatum too). This investment banking and tax evasion business is very incestuous.

The five arms are: the Freedom Fund, Legatum Institute and it’s Prosperity Index, Luminos Fund and End Fund. We’ve touched on some of these in a previous article here which is quite long:

The Truth about the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC)

This article will kick start the five separate posts, which compliment the existing research summarised above,, by looking at the $MultiMillion Funding Partners (those which have invested more than US$1m) of Legatum’s END Fund. In no particular order, as they are all interesting in different ways. From the website:

Before I begin, it’s worth recapping on the End Fund’s primary aim, which apparently to end those common parasite-type diseases in poor African communities - those that have little or no infrastructure like drinking water. The End Fund’s Mass Drug Administrations (MDAs) that are ….“brought to you by Pfizers” form a big part of the projects outcomes. This includes cheap off-patent generic medicines like that famous Nobel-Prize-winning horse-paste that we were not allowed in the West:

Taken from the Annual Report of the End Fund, Legatum group.

The End Fund’s targetted areas are Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa. So when you are reading through these Legatum (ARC) Partners, it’s good to bear in mind what relevance these entities have for that endeavour. Are these genuine philanthropic partners? Or is there something more sinister about the types of PPPs and financial ‘impact investments’ that are being strategically managed here…? (Great 10 mins summary of what impact investment is all about here.)

For instance, according the End Project’s Annual Report.

“In addition, pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer and Merck Serono, played an overwhelmingly generous role of donating the majority of medicines.”

So let’s begin:

Campbell Family Foundation

To kick off with, let’s look at the Campbell Family Foundation. This philanthropic organisation apparently aims to:

“Personally serve and help others. Look for ways to strengthen the weak and assist the poor, particularly children. Provide financial and volunteer service focused primarily on education, health, welfare and arts.”

There wasn’t much information about the partners and grants provided by the Campbell’s, but I did find this rather enlightening article about banker Bill Campbell’s first intro to Legatum (extract below):

Extract from this recent article about the Campbell Family Foundation

So that extract should put us in the mood for what follows about Legatum’s other partners, next….

The ELMA Foundation

According to ELMAs website, they are a philanthropic advisor service to their group of Foundations, which includes emergency relief and climate change initiatives. The ELMA Vaccine and Immunization Foundation is a major focus area - i.e. ‘vaccine’ roll out in Africa is their primary function, wholly funded by the Clinton Foundation and UNICEF, as this screenshot from their website explains:

One of ELMAs funder/partners is NexLeaf Analytics, which specialises in cold chain data monitoring for transporting ‘vaccines’. Nexleaf partners are unsurprisingly Gavi, World Bank, Google, Gates, Amazon, the Climate & Clean Air Coalition and many other familiar names.

The Moondance Foundation

This seems like an odd one out - the Moondance Foundation specialises in grants for those in Wales, UK. It helped with furlough payments during lockdown. The fund originates from floating the Admiral Group Plc (insurance) on the London Stock Market in 2004.

UBS Optimus

UBS Optimus is a ‘global wealth management firm’ with apparently a team of “90 philanthropy experts in 12 locations […] support[ing] you wherever your philanthropic objectives lead.” In 2022, the UBS Optimus Foundation opened an office in Australia, worldwide there are now eight offices established over the past 20-years. Focus areas are health, education, climate and the environment, in which they manage over 370 programs, with grants deployed in 80 countries. UBS Optimus Foundations seems to have close links with GHR Foundation which is funded by the Vatican and other entities of the Catholic Church, and is a Partner of the WEF.

UBS Optimus also manages The Power of Nutrition (PoN) programme. But don’t get too excited. This ain’t the genuine educational programme based on real, seasonal, pesticide-free, wholesome food people like you and I dream of. Nope. Partners of UBS Optimus PoN include Gates, BigPharma like German Bayer and British-Dutch Unilever, global BigFood like Kelloggs and Cargill, PVH (mega designer-clothing brands including Hilfiger and Klein etc) - think Smart Textiles, Hilton Hotel group and the African Dangote Foundation (Sugar, Fertiliser, Mining and Petrochem). Perhaps most concerning of all UBS Optimum’s partners is Cloudera, a data analytics company which seems to have a current focus on AI and children. There is even a downloadable kids book which promotes the use of data - but with no mention at all of the potential risks involved:

Screenshot from the PDF downloadable book aimed at children from Cloudera

Cloudera’s partners are predictable: IBM, Amazon, ATOs (Smart Cities) and IT network Kindryl. This screen shot (below), from a marketing resource published jointly by Cloudera and ATOS, highlights their shared objectives for the use of UK patient data:

Extract from a pdf available from Cloudera website here

Reaching the Last Mile

This Last Mile entity that is also a major partner of Legatum’s END Foundation is actually a spin-off from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, so I don’t really need to spend any time dissecting this. Except to say this entity is focused on ‘achieving a polio-free world’. Nuff said.

Unite

Unite is a partner of Legatum, and again not much needs to be said about this that hasn’t already been said elsewhere - Unite is part of the Richard Branson Virgin empire.

The Children’s Investment (TCI) Fund Foundation

Contrary to it’s seemingly innocuous name, TCI - another major partner of Legatum - is another hedge fund management company and part of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data - another entity funded by Gates, Hewlett, Google and the Commonwealth. This fund manager uses a ‘private equity approach in long-term investment’ for debt secured on ‘high quality assets in prime locations' (North America and Europe). It is also a significant long-term shareholder of Airbus, Alphabet (Google) and Cellnex, the Spanish communications company. (Do you know about Roberto Viola and the Internet of Humans at the EU Telecoms?)

Delta Philanthropies

Delta, like its partner Legatum, is an impact investment company. delta is also a UK charity, focusing on Africa. It’s strange that like Rwanda’s Vision, Zimbabwe also has a ‘Vision 2030’ programme, funded by the World Bank. All over their website are references to the covid era propaganda, including this heartbreaking text and image:

The two names at the top of Delta are interesting: Firstly, Mr Strive Masiyiwa is founder of the Econet Group, (pan-African telecom, media, and technology giant). He also serves on the board of several GloboCaps, including Unilever, National Geographic Society, Asian Society and Stanford University. He was former board member of the Rockefeller Foundation for 15 years and Chairman Emeritus of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Secondly, Ms Tsitsi Masiyiwa is Founder and Executive Chair of Delta Foundation and is a strategic…

“advisor and thought partner to universities, national leaders, and social entrepreneurs on issues of education, leadership development, and youth empowerment.” according to their website

BTW It is interesting to read about the covid era ventilator ‘donations’ to Delta from Virgin, now we have more insights into these projects.

Dubai Cares

Bearing in mind Legatum HQ is based in Dubai, it’s not surprising that an entity like Dubai Cares would be included on the main partnership list of the END Fund - which of course (purely coincidentally, you understand) is where COP28 the UN Meeting on Climate Change will be held next week. The website informs us that:

“Dubai Cares plays a key role in the UN SDG 4 (education)… and is a civil society organization formally associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications.”

Jeffrey and Marieke Rothschild Foundation

These guys are NOT apparently connected with the famous banking Rothschild’s but who knows. One thing’s for sure, they are wealthy. Jeff has co-founded several technology and software companies, including Veritas Software, and made his millions from being vice president of infrastructure engineering at Facebook (2005 - 2015). His wife, Marieke Rothschild is a linguist with many ties to academic institutions. The Rothschilds’ many philanthropic projects include medical science, the Giving Pledge Community created by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They have recently donated US$10mill to Stanford University’s medical centre for cancer-cell therapy research. Sinister, yes.

MacKenzie Scott

Here’s a fun connection that some people may not know about. Ms Scott is the billionaire ex-wife of Amazon founder and king of fake-fact-checkers, Jeff Bezos. Apparently she is currently worth US$39 billion. Nice settlement. One of her finance partners is the Kepler Foundation, which funds a new university in Kigali, Rwanda:

Screenshot from a short promo video about the Kepler Campus in Kigali.

Noting my previous post about the current news in Britain concerning the controversial plans to send UK Refugees to Rwanda for ‘processing’, it is interesting to note that Kepler is involved with a project (since 2015) to ‘serve’ refugee populations at the old and isolated UN Kizaba refugee camp in Rwanda. I wonder if this mud-hut slum covered with tarpaulins has changed much in recent years?

Screenshot from this video about Kiziba Refugee Camp...

Education programmes at the Refugee Centre are provided through Southern New Hampshire University. Curious? Maybe the fact that this ‘university’ is funded by Amazon will throw more light on the type of education indoctrination these vulnerable refugees receive? But Rwanda gets brownie points for helping the UN.

Wyss Foundation

Next on our list of major Legatum partners is the Wyss Foundation. Personally, I’d never heard of this group before today. Turns out this is a whole new rabbit hole to enter into, if you so choose. I have written before about the fake science and capture of academia when it comes to environmental issues, for instance here and here. Wyss throws new light on the ways that the climate change narrative has been skewed, promoted and upheld in various political spaces. Wyss works closely with US-based Berger Action Fund, which in turn works with the League of Conservation Workers (looks suspiciously like an ‘Astroturf’ environmental group to me); Community Catalyst Action Fund (campaigning politicians to keep Medicaid); Common Cause (which campaigns for policy changes to US democratic processes); Nature Conservancy (promoting climate-change-related policies); anti-Trump activists Moms Rising and finally, Black Lives Matter supporter and consumer group American’s for Financial Reform.

The Wyss Foundation itself, founded by a Swiss-born and Harvard Business School educated, medical researcher, Hansjorg Wyss. With scholars and fellows at many of the entities mentioned above, the grants from Wyss seem to be focused on two main areas - ‘protection’ schemes for public lands and oceans and clinical research. Perhaps most relevant are the grants provided to the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, which includes investigations into AI use ion gene expression to the RNA cells in ‘transcriptomics’, as this short promo video describes (2 mins):

Like many philanthropic investors, Wyss also has a collection of art including museums.

Now for something more light-hearted (if you can call it that), as we near the end of this list of Legatum Partners, we are down to the final three mentioned on it’s website:

Leona and Harry Helmsley Charitable Trust

Notorious “Queen of Mean” and ‘rich bitch’ dog-lover Leona Helmsley left many $millions to her dog, ‘Trouble” and many more $billions to the Helmsley Trust after she died in 2007. The original wealth was accrued through real estate businesses, but after her husband’s death, Leona received a 4 year prison-sentence for a US$7m tax fraud in New York. Following her conviction, Federal Judge John Walker publicly reprimanded her, saying, “Your conduct was the product of naked greed [and] the arrogant belief that you were above the law.”

Helmsley also partners with Digital Earth Africa, an AI data surveillance company using satellite technology, funded by the WEF:

Screenshot from Digital Earth Africa’s promo video

This includes satellite and drone technology that can detect and surveil a remote potential ‘vaccine’ target, and….? You guessed it. The Helmsley Trust supports programmes in diabetes research (think health ‘devices’ with nanotech), food security initiatives in Africa (think GMO), cancer treatments (think genetics), as well as financial interests in the healthcare systems of Israel. This latter project includes recently financing the construction of the state-of-the-art Helmsley Computer Science Building of Ben-Gurion University. The computer-science department is one of the university’s largest departments and a key engine of future tech (military) growth.

Antonius Stichting Projects (SAS-P)

SAS-P is a Amsterdam-based philanthropic foundation. SAS-P funds renovation projects for buildings that can home people living in poverty “to make a sustainable shift to better socio-economic circumstances for them and their families.”

Last, but not least (as there are plenty of other partners to discuss):

Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies (MACP)

MACP had $9 billion in assets recorded in 2021 placing it in the top ten foundations in the US. That’s BIG! It provides grants across seven areas: Arts & Cultures, Disaster Relief & Recovery, Environment, Animal Welfare, Quality of Life, Teachers, and Legacy & Opportunity. One of its projects is a data surveillance system that apparently assists admin at university to monitor student attendance and assessments. This Whole College Transformation is a “vision is for every college to be a catalyst for equitable, antiracist, and economically vibrant communities.” Let’s focus on attendance and not worry about the quality of the education, eh?

In MACP’s Nonprofit Quarterly Steve Dubb wrote:

To understand Native land stewardship, it is important to recognize that it occurs within a context of repairing the ravages of colonialism.

And also quoted:

The climate crisis is not only a product of greenhouse gas emissions… but also of an ideological shift that was imposed by colonization and capitalism to justify violation of sacred land-, water-, and airways—domination that taught Americans to speak of “resources” instead of “relatives.” (Ruth Miller, Meda Dewitt, and Margi Dashevsky, Nonprofit Quarterly, 2021

Conclusions

So, there we have it. There is a bit of an overview of who the significant financial partners are for Legatum, the Dubai-based impact investment organisation, which is funding and staffing Jordan Peterson’s project ARC.

OK, let’s not dismiss entirely the good that can come from these philanthropic programmes. There’s no doubt that innumerable people have benefitted in all kinds of ways from these grants over the decades.

But has it gone too far? Where does the line between profit and poverty become too blurred to be ethical? What about the individuals who are exploited, because they are unaware that their education, health and personal data is being harvested? How much are the CEOs of these pseudo-charitable entities being paid? What conflicts of interest are not being disclosed? And how is valid informed consent being provided to those in African communities who are given ‘free’ healthcare?

Can anyone still believe that ARC is anywhere remotely near the kind of initiative that any of us needs right now? One that really stands for Free Speech, Democratic Rights and Bodily Sovereignty?

I’ll move onto one of the other arms of Legatum’s empire in the new few days. Please do share and add any comments, corrections or additional info below.