President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary operates a hedge fund that reaped a massive windfall two years ago — even as global markets sagged.

Scott Bessent, the founder of the Connecticut-based hedge fund Key Square Group, had been making a full-court press for the post.

In 1992, Bessent helped Soros pull off the firm’s greatest trade: shorting the British pound. The British government was part of the European Union at the time, and its central bank—the Bank of England—had committed to keeping the value of the pound within a strict range alongside other European currencies,