My bet would be “yes”, because it doesn’t seem to be a frequent name, and the set of people who can donate so much money is not that large. It could possibly be a relative with the same first name, if such person exists.
I also think it is irrelevant, but I am curious about the meta level: If an organization has to disclose the names of donors (not sure if SIAI has to or not), does it also have to provide answers to questions “is the XY who gave you money this specific XY or a namesake?”
Would it make sense for a group of rich people to coordinate and legally change their names to the same (already frequent) name, thus making their future donations deniable? Imagine that George Soros, Peter Thiel, and the Koch brothers would all change their names to “John Snow”, and then many organizations would be like “yeah, John Snow donated tons of money to our cause, and we are not legally required to tell you which one”. :D
MIRI’s website mentions a list of their donors. However, the list does not mention Jeffrey Epstein. I found that name on a list of donors from 2011. Perhaps, the scandal or conviction of Jeffrey Epstein made MIRI remove his name.
My bet would be “yes”, because it doesn’t seem to be a frequent name, and the set of people who can donate so much money is not that large. It could possibly be a relative with the same first name, if such person exists.
I also think it is irrelevant, but I am curious about the meta level: If an organization has to disclose the names of donors (not sure if SIAI has to or not), does it also have to provide answers to questions “is the XY who gave you money this specific XY or a namesake?”
Would it make sense for a group of rich people to coordinate and legally change their names to the same (already frequent) name, thus making their future donations deniable? Imagine that George Soros, Peter Thiel, and the Koch brothers would all change their names to “John Snow”, and then many organizations would be like “yeah, John Snow donated tons of money to our cause, and we are not legally required to tell you which one”. :D
There are plenty of ways to donate anonymously already when that’s what people want to do that take a lot less effort then changing a name.
MIRI’s website mentions a list of their donors. However, the list does not mention Jeffrey Epstein. I found that name on a list of donors from 2011. Perhaps, the scandal or conviction of Jeffrey Epstein made MIRI remove his name.