Did some research on Marc Rich....First one is dated 1996...
Drops of Ink Traders: Marc Rich Wants You!
By Ravi Desai
wsaccess.com
12/23/96 2:00 PM ET
Commodity traders have always viewed themselves in a slightly rebellious
light, willing to let their shirttails flap loose and their language run
wild.
Well, the outlaw-wannabes of the pits may have a new outlet for their wilder
instincts. A half-page advertisement that ran in the December 14 issue of
The Economist reads, in part:
The MARC RICH GROUP with its headquarters in Zug/Switzerland and trading
departments all over the world is looking for highly qualified TRADERS,
specialized and experienced in crude oil and petroleum products, aluminum,
coal, ferro-alloys, pig iron and grains.
It goes on to request that applications be submitted in strictest confidence
to The Chairman, Marc Rich + Co Holding AG, in Zug.
None of this would be even slightly remarkable were it not for the name Marc
Rich. As has been widely reported, Rich is the fabulously wealthy fugitive
from American justice, securely ensconced out of arrest's way in Switzerland
for the past 15 years. Charged here with tax evasion, fraud, and
racketeering, Rich has benefited from an anomaly in Swiss-American
extradition regulations that has kept him--and his stash, estimated at over
$800 million--out of the reach of American handcuffs.
Rich and his former partner Pincus "Pinky" Greene--also a fugitive in
Switzerland--pioneered the spot oil market, worked with Marvin Davis to buy
20th Century Fox, were indicted after trading in Iranian crude during the
hostage crisis, were legends in aluminum trading, and violated the embargo
against South Africa, in the process amassing both a tremendous fortune and
a huge amount of ill-will in the U.S. legal establishment. Probably because
of the latter, Rich decided to lay low for several years after his arrival
in Zug and deal with a messy divorce proceeding, still apparently in
progress.
Over the past few years, though, Rich has gradually been trading more
aggressively. As a result, his presence remains felt in the markets, at
least periodically. Still, his public visibility has remained low on the
whole, as befits a man who remains on Interpol's priority arrest list.
Now, however, he seems to have bumped his activities up to a new level of
visibility. Rich is recruiting--and in a big way. Although Rich's company
didn't return calls for comment, response to the ad may well have been
strong. For one thing, Rich is known to pay well. For another, working for a
fabulously wealthy fugitive probably offers precisely the kind of thrill to
sate even the most wild of commodity traders.
One tip, though, for Rich's new hires: When passing through U.S. Immigration
on your way home to visit Mom from Zug, don't tell the agent who your boss
is.
By Ravi Desai
************************************
People
Top Of The News: The Fugitive Kind
Dan Ackman, Forbes.com, 01.22.01, 10:39 AM ET
forbes.com
NEW YORK - He wintered in St. Moritz and summered in Spain, but Aspen
remained off limits, and that was a bummer. But Marc Rich, the fugitive
financier, will suffer no longer, not after receiving a last-day-in-office
pardon from President Clinton.
Rich, 66, a shadowy American-Spanish-Israeli billionaire commodities trader,
got his pardon despite never having spent a day in jail--and he might have
gotten a life sentence for his crimes. Pincus Green, Rich's longtime
business partner also received absolution. But fellow near-billionaire
Michael Milken, who spent two years in prison and paid a billion dollars in
fines, was left off the pardon list and wondering what he did wrong.
Perhaps Milken married the wrong woman. Rich was wed to, and then divorced
from, Denise Rich, a songwriter, record company executive and Democratic
Party fundraiser. Perhaps Milken had the wrong lawyer. Rich was represented
by Jack Quinn, former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, who
personally discussed Rich's case with the president.
We assume, though, that Milken had a good lawyer, too. Milken also had
powerful and generous friends. Ron Burkle, a California supermarket mogul
and also a friend of Clinton's who pledged $135 million to the Clinton
Library, worked hard to secure the financier's pardon.
The former Drexel Burnham executive probably also suffered from too much
advance publicity, sparking protests from the U.S. Attorney's office in
Manhattan and from the Securities and Exchange Commission, who argued that
pardoning Milken would send the wrong message to would-be financial market
miscreants.
Rich, for his part, fled the U.S. in 1983, evading prosecution on 65 counts,
which included tax fraud and racketeering charges. All told, the government
charged that he evaded more than $48 million in U.S. taxes.
Rich was also accused of trading oil with Iran during the U.S. hostage
crisis in 1980. Before that, he allegedly earned millions by creating an
oil-trading daisy chain that evaded U.S. oil price controls. Oil that was
supposed to be regulated emerged, through Rich's financial sleight of hand,
unregulated.
The U.S. Department of Justice International Interagency Outlook offered
this "case detail" about Rich: "Tehran, Iran, November 4, 1979. Iranian
militants invade the U. S. Embassy. For the next fourteen months, they hold
fifty-three Americans hostage. Thousands of Iranians march through the
streets, chanting, 'Death to America!' But one American quickly becomes
popular with the new government in Tehran."
That American, now restored to full citizenship, was Marc David Rich. The
U.S. had offered to pay a reward for information that led to his arrest and,
if necessary, to relocate individuals who fingered him. But Rich remained a
fugitive even after reaching an out-of-court settlement in the U.S. for
about $150 million in taxes.
Michael Milken: Unpardoned
As for Milken, whatever his crimes, there was no need to offer a reward. If
the FBI wanted to find him, they could look up his office in the phone book.
Rich was actually not hard to find either. He traveled widely, appeared at
conferences and cut a wide swath in the St. Moritz social whirl. He
traveled, according to the FBI, to Jamaica, Portugal, Britain, Eastern
Europe, the former Soviet Union and Israel in recent years, accompanied by a
pair of bodyguards. His office was in Zug, Switzerland. But Rich and Green
chose their crimes wisely--extraditing businessmen for tax evasion is
something the Swiss do not do.
Protests about the Rich pardon came after the fact. New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani, one of several prosecutors who had worked on the Rich case, told
reporters: "I'm shocked that the President of the United States would pardon
him. After all, he never paid a price.''
Green started his career at Phillips Brothers, once a commodities trading
powerhouse, which later bought Salomon Brothers, the investment bank. He
feuded with his partners, and, ultimately, he and Green started their own
firm, Marc Rich & Co. After more battling, Rich left his namesake firm in
1993, which was later renamed Glencore and remains one of the world's
largest commodity dealers. Rich got back to business in late 1995 with the
Marc Rich Group.
Previously, Rich made "untold efforts to try to get the charges reduced,
including many, many overtures and entreaties based on the use of
influence,'' Giuliani said.
It was not clear exactly what turned the trick this time. Clinton told
reporters, "I spent a lot of personal time [on the Rich case] because it's
an unusual case, but Quinn made a strong case and I would suggest he was
right on the merits.''
The precise nature of those merits remain as elusive as Rich himself.
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