Marc Rich, one of the most famous white-collar criminals in recent memory, has died in Switzerland at age 78, as the result of a stroke.
Rich became a millionaire before he turned 50 – but not without controversy. The college dropout (he never finished New York University) found a profitable market in trade. By the time he turned 30, he was trading crude oil at sky-high prices. He made other lucrative investments, including a share of the 20th Century Fox studio which he sold to Rupert Murdoch for $250 million.
In spite of the United States boycott of Iran, Rich traded with the Ayatollah’s government even while Americans were being held hostage in Tehran. It would be one of a series of distasteful (and in most cases, illegal) moves: he would do business with Libya, South Africa, Cuba, and other countries under embargo or boycott. And it paid off: Rich made billions.
Apparently comfortable with his own business practices, Rich flouted tax laws as well. In 1983, Rich was indicted on 65 criminal charges, including tax fraud. He was said to have evaded at least $50 million in federal taxes, leading former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to remark that it was “the biggest tax evasion case in US history.” His company eventually handed over about $200 million in civil penalties but Rich and his business partner avoided prosecution – and up to 300 years in prison – by fleeing to Switzerland.
Even as the Internal Revenue Service offered huge rewards for his capture, Rich hardly suffered. Fortune magazine reported that after he fled, he continued to bring in millions, earning roughly $300 million in 1988 alone. His parties were lavish and legendary, ranging from a New Year’s Eve bash at his St. Moritz ski house to entertaining celebrities at his $9.5 million manse in Marbella, Spain.
Nearly two decades later, Rich was at the center of one of the most controversial presidential pardons in history. Even though he appeared on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list alongside Osama bin Laden, Rich was pardoned by then President Clinton in 2001. After the pardon, it was alleged that the President had given into political and donor pressures that were influenced by, among other things, donations made by Denise Rich, Rich’s wife at the time, to the Democratic party. Those donations, although politically damaging, were found not to have influenced the pardon (*cough*). Other powerful individuals were said to have lobbied for Rich’s pardon, including top Israeli officials such as Prime Minister Ehud Barak and ex-Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit as an acknowledgment for tens of millions of dollars Rich contributed to Israeli hospitals, museums, and other charities.
In the last years of his life, despite losing millions in the Madoff Ponzi scheme, Rich continued to live well. The company he founded, Glencore, went public in 2011 and merged with Xstrata earlier this year. Rich’s hand in the company landed him at #937 on Forbes’ billionaire list in 2010. His estimated net worth of $1 billion was said, at the time, to be “likely low.”
His ex-wife, Denise Rich, also took a page from Rich’s playbook: she moved to London and renounced her US citizenship. The move, accountants said, saved her tens of millions of dollars in taxes.
