tejek... You surprise me... "Marc Rich" Here...for all you Clinton lovers...
Saturday February 03 02:08 PM EST
Fugitive Marc Rich Is Given a New Life --
and So Is a Cult Biography
By PJ Mark
Bill Clinton's controversial 11th-hour pardon of financier Marc Rich has given a second life to the longtime
fugitive -- and to a long out of print biography of him. Metal Men: Marc Rich and the 10 Billion Dollar
Scam, written by Wall Street Journal Paris correspondent A. Craig Copetas, was originally published by
Putnam in 1985 and then in paperback by HarperPerennial in 1986.
Constance Sayre of Market Partners International -- an old pal of Copetas from his earlier life as political
editor of High Times magazine -- negotiated the new deal, a reissue in paperback from HarperPerennial.
Editor Tim Duggan will oversee the reissue, which could come out as soon as two months from now. Copetas
will write a new introduction based on his recent Journal articles.
Rich, according to federal prosecutors, conspired to buy six million barrels of oil from the Iranian government in
April 1980 -- while Americans were being held hostage in Iran and in violation of a U.S. trade embargo. In
September 1983, Rich was indicted by a federal grand jury on more than 50 counts of wire fraud, racketeering,
trading with the enemy, and evading more than $48 million in taxes. At the time, Rich was in Zug, Switzerland,
and refused to surrender to U.S. authorities for trial.
Copetas says the Clinton pardon was ''shocking, but it wasn't surprising. In the book, and in subsequent articles
I had written about Rich over the years, I have always said -- and his closest friends have always said -- that he
would trade himself out of this situation, because he is a trader. And that's precisely what he did.''
The recent pardon immediately swelled interest in Copetas's book because it is the only account of Rich's story
and it is a hard book to find. Copetas says that he was told by a number of senior employees of Rich that when
Metal Men was first published Rich had his people buy up copies so they could be destroyed. Although
Copetas says he is uncertain if this claim is in fact true, ''What I know for certain is one day I saw one of his
people go into the old Doubleday store on Fifth Avenue with one of those hand-trolleys and buy a whole carton
books -- basically cleaned out what they had -- and brought it back to his office. What happened to those
books afterwards, I don't know.''
According to Sayre, the book ''didn't do so well'' when it was originally published, despite these enthusiastic
repeat buyers. Still, she says, Metal Men came to be a cult classic. Original copies are sold via book finders
like Bibliofind, bn.com and offline used-book stores from anywhere between $200 to $600, in both hardcover
and paperback.
''Craig got a call from a so-called relative of Rich,'' Sayre reports, ''who offered him $1400 for a copy'' -- a
story Copetas confirms. There was a hardcover and paperback version in both the U.S. and the U.K., and an
edition published in Japan. There was even a Metal Men fan club in Tokyo. Copetas says he still receives at
least five calls a month regarding Metal Men.
Putnam, however, decided against reissuing the title, so Sayre went to Harper. Meanwhile, Broadway Books
contacted Copetas in France, and proposed a hardcover reprint. A small auction followed between the two
publishers. ''The reason people will want to read this is because everyone is reading about the pardon issue in
the news,'' says Duggan, ''and most people are saying 'Who is this Marc Rich guy and what is the back story?
How did he get into this mess in the first place?' ''
Sayre says that Copetas will use the new introduction as a chance to ''clear up misconceptions.'' It has been
reported, for example, that Rich renounced his U.S. citizenship. In fact, the government never accepted his
renouncement.
For all his expertise on the matter -- networks have been after him non-stop since the pardon -- Copetas says
he has been unsuccessful in ever getting Rich to speak with him, even for the book.
''This a singular event that has taken place,'' Copetas says. ''I wrote a book many years ago that got wonderful
reviews at the time but no one could find a copy. So 17 years later, Bill Clinton did me a favor by pardoning
Marc Rich.''
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Friday February 2 8:37 PM ET
Role in Rich Pardon Questioned
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Newly released documents suggest that the Justice
Department (news - web sites)'s deputy attorney general played a bigger role
in President Clinton (news - web sites)'s pardon for fugitive financier Marc
Rich than the department has acknowledged.
Documents created by Rich lawyer Jack Quinn, who was Clinton's White
House counsel until 1997, state that Eric Holder, the Justice Department's
No. 2 official, was ``neutral, leaning towards'' a pardon. After Clinton
granted it, Holder suggested how Quinn could try to stem the negative
publicity that resulted, the documents say.
In a New York news conference, Clinton said he had discussed the Rich
pardon with the Justice Department but didn't say with whom.
``I consulted with the Justice Department about this,'' Clinton said. ``I finally
took another look at it at the end. I wish this had happened about 30 days
before the end, so you wouldn't have all the questions.''
Nevertheless, he said, he stands by the pardon.
``I take full responsibility for my final decision. Nobody else made the
decision, and I handled it in what I thought was the most appropriate way,''
he said. ``On the merits, I don't think it was a wrong decision. I regret all the
political flap.''
Friday night, Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web
sites), said they will return thousands of dollars worth of gifts they accepted at
the end of the presidential term, an attempt to calm another post-White
House political problem. Among the gifts are two coffee tables and two
chairs worth $7,375, given by Rich's former wife and Democratic party
donor, Denise Rich.
Quinn released the documents to reporters this week and sent them to
Congress, which plans hearings starting next week.
Holder told Quinn that he ``did a very good job'' on the pardon, according to
a Jan. 22 e-mail by Quinn to other members of Rich's legal team. Quinn's
e-mail also states that ``Holder ... thinks we shd be better about getting the
legal merits of the case out publicly. i assured him we were.''
Quinn's notes also suggest that in a Nov. 8, 1999, meeting, Holder and two
other Justice Department aides said they ``all think'' it is ``ridiculous'' that
U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White was refusing to meet on the status of the
government's case against Rich. White was refusing to do so because the
financier was refusing to return to the United States to face the charges.
Quinn's notes from a subsequent conversation state that Holder spoke with
White on the matter, and Holder will ``do what he can.'' At the time, Rich's
lawyers were trying to get the indictment against him thrown out. They began
pursuing the pardon later last year.
In a typewritten letter to Holder on Jan. 10, a week and a half before the
pardon, Quinn wrote, ``Your saying positive things, I'm told, would make this
happen. Thanks for your consideration.''
Asked by reporters Friday whether he approved of the Rich pardon, Holder
replied: ``I'll be talking about that later.''
Previously, a Justice Department official said only that Holder told the White
House the day before the pardon that he had no strong objections to
clemency for Rich based on the facts as laid out by Quinn, but he was not
endorsing it because he was not familiar with the facts. Holder also told
Quinn that New York prosecutors would strongly object.
Quinn recalls telling Holder on Nov. 21 he would file a pardon request for
Rich at the White House. Holder believed it would be filed at Justice and
evaluated there like other petitions, the Justice official, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said.
In a handwritten pre-pardon note to ``Bruce,'' apparently top Clinton adviser
Bruce Lindsey, Quinn said he'd been told that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak (news - web sites) ``raised the Marc Rich matter with the president.''
And in a typewritten letter to Lindsey last Dec. 19, Quinn said: ``I want to
follow up on an issue you raised in our conversation while in Belfast'' about
the failure of Rich and his indicted business partner, Pincus Green, to return
to the United States to face the criminal charges. Quinn contended in the
letter the two indicted businessmen are not fugitives because they were living
in Switzerland at the time of the indictment. They had left the United States in
the closing stages of a lengthy criminal investigation.
``Their failure to return to New York was not a crime,'' Quinn wrote Lindsey.
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Earlier Stories
Rich Ready To Face Civil Actions (January 28)
Clinton Pardon of Fugitive Decried (January 26)
Congress Wants Rich Pardon Inquiry (January 26)
Congress Looks Into Rich Pardon (January 26) |
