George Soros, the billionaire, who earned fame by betting against the pound in 1992, did not speculate against sterling just ahead of Britain's vote to leave the European Union but he did profit from other bearish bets due to the Brexit result, a spokesman said."George Soros did not speculate against sterling while he was arguing for Britain to remain in the European Union," a spokesman for Soros said on Monday. "In fact, it was long the British Pound leading up to the vote.""However, because of his generally bearish outlook on world markets, Mr. Soros did profit from other investments," the spokesman said.

On 16 September 1992 (called "Black Wednesday") the British Conservative government was forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), as a result of which George Soros made over £1 billion in profit by short selling sterling.

In 1997, the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion. In 2005, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that the actual cost may have been £3.3 billion.