• Celebrity Paris Hilton leaves the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington. Bloomberg
    Celebrity Paris Hilton leaves the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington. Bloomberg
  • Reality TV star and socialite Hilton in Washington. Bloomberg
    Reality TV star and socialite Hilton in Washington. Bloomberg
  • Hilton arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building to meet members of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. EPA
    Hilton arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building to meet members of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. EPA
  • Celebrity Paris Hilton, left, walks out the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, D. C. , US, on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Crypto-payments company MoonPay got almost 16% of its most recent funding round from celebrities including Hilton the company said in a statement last month. Photographer: Ting Shen / Bloomberg
    Celebrity Paris Hilton, left, walks out the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, D. C. , US, on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Crypto-payments company MoonPay got almost 16% of its most recent funding round from celebrities including Hilton the company said in a statement last month. Photographer: Ting Shen / Bloomberg
  • Hilton arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building. EPA
    Hilton arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building. EPA
  • Hilton arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building. EPA
    Hilton arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building. EPA
  • Hilton brings a small entourage to the Hart Senate Office Building. EPA
    Hilton brings a small entourage to the Hart Senate Office Building. EPA
  • Hilton at the Hart Senate Office Building. EPA
    Hilton at the Hart Senate Office Building. EPA
  • Hilton was in Washington to meet members of Congress. EPA
    Hilton was in Washington to meet members of Congress. EPA
  • Hilton on Capitol Hill in Washington. EPA
    Hilton on Capitol Hill in Washington. EPA

World

US

Paris Hilton in Washington: socialite visits White House to push for child abuse law

Reality TV star was in Washington to lobby for law to protect children in residential treatment programmes

The National

May 10, 2022

  • English
  • Arabic

Reality TV star and Hilton Hotels heiress Paris Hilton visited the White House on Tuesday on her second visit to the nation's capital to lobby for a child abuse law.

“What an impactful Day 1 in Washington, DC,” Hilton tweeted on Tuesday evening.

“It has been so encouraging speaking with policy staff, senators and representatives in the White House and on Capitol Hill to advocate for children placed in residential treatment programmes.

“I will not stop until change is made.”

A White House staffer told CNN that Hilton “was at the White House with state and national advocates as part of her advocacy efforts to improve protections of youths in residential programmes and facilities”.

Hilton “met with policy staff where she and other survivors shared their powerful stories and discussed issues pertinent to the protection of institutionalised youth in America”, the White House staffer said.

The star has personal experience with abuse at residential care facilities as she suffered physical and emotional abuse when she was sent to boarding school in Utah as a teenager. She shared details of the abuse in the YouTube documentary This is Paris in 2020.

On a previous visit to Washington to lobby on the issue in October 2021, she spoke outside the US Capitol building about the “troubled teen industry” she and other survivors are fighting against.

The Accountability for Congregate Care Act would give more rights to children in youth centres and increase oversight of the industry, giving children in such facilities rights to clean drinking water and healthy food.

It would also allow children in congregate care centres to call their parents.

Chuck Grassley, a senator from Iowa, posted a photo with Hilton after their meeting on Tuesday,

“Met with Paris Hilton to discuss how we can stop abuse of children in residential care facilities,” he tweeted.

Killing of Qassem Suleimani

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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