Robert Mercer (nonfiction)

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Robert Leroy Mercer (born July 11, 1946) is an American computer scientist, who was a developer in early artificial intelligence and co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund.

Mercer played a key role in the Brexit campaign by donating data analytics services to Nigel Farage. He is also a major funder of organizations supporting right-wing political causes in the United States, such as Breitbart News and Donald Trump's 2016 campaign for president. He is the principal benefactor of the Make America Number 1 super PAC.

In November 2017, Mercer announced he would step down from Renaissance Technologies and sell his stake in Breitbart News to his daughters.

2016 U.S. election

By January 2016 Mercer was the biggest single donor in the 2016 U.S. presidential race. In June 2016, he was ranked the #1 donor to federal candidates in the 2016 election cycle as he had donated $2 million to John R. Bolton's super PAC and $668,000 to the Republican National Committee. Mercer was a major financial supporter of the 2016 presidential campaign of Ted Cruz, contributing $11 million to a super PAC associated with the candidate. Mercer was a major supporter of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign for president. Mercer and his daughter Rebekah helped to get Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway senior roles in the Trump campaign. Rebekah worked with Conway on the Cruz Super-PAC Keep the Promise in the 2016 Republican primaries. Mercer also financed a Super PAC, Make America Number One, which supported Trump's campaign. Nick Patterson, a former colleague of Mercer's said in 2017 that Trump would not have been elected without Mercer's support.

Allegations of money laundering

An article on Medium by q502 titled "Robert Mercer — Money Launderer for Vladimir Putin" (Aug 21, 2017) observes:

Renaissance Technologies (RENTEC) is the second largest hedge fund in the US, managing $45 billion in assets. It has a reputation for being the most successful hedge fund in history, for using quantitative trading strategies designed by top scientists, and for being extremely secretive. Publicly available information on RENTEC implies that the firm is a massive money laundering tool disguised as a hedge fund, operating on behalf of Vladimir PUTIN.

Links

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