Marc Rich
Marc Rich (1934-2013) was a leading global commodities trader.[1]
Contents
Early life
Rich was born Marcell David Reich in Antwerp, Belgium, on December 18 1934.[1] He was the only son of David Rich and Paula Rich-Wang.[2]
His father, David, was a door-to-door salesman.[1] Seeking to escape religious persecution during the Second World War, the family initially settled in Vichy France before moving to the United States in 1941. They lived with a relative in New York, before moving successively to Kansas City, Philadelphia and back to New York.[2]
Education
Rich was educated at Rhodes preparatory school in Manhattan. He entered New York University in the autumn of 1952, but dropped out to take a job with Philipp Bros.[1][2]
Phillip Brothers
At the time Rich joined in 1954, Philipp Brothers was the leading trader of industrial metals. he started out as a 'lehrling' in the mailroom, before moving to the shipping department which handled physical transfers of commodities.[2][1] He first came to prominence by buying up mercury to sell to vehicle battery makers supplying the US Army. By the late 1960s he was running Phillip Bros' Madrid office.[1]
Rich's career took him to Phillip Brothers offices in Bolivia, the Netherlands, India, Spain and Switzerland. From 1964 to 1974, he managed the company's office in Madrid.[2]
In 1966, Rich married shoe-manufacturing heiress Denise Eisenberg.[1] Their first child Ilona was born in August 1967. Their second child Gabrielle was born in January 1969.[2]
In the early 1970s, Rich pioneered the 'spot' market for oil. Contacts with the Iranian royal family enabled him to profit from the first oil shock in 1973.[1]
The following year, Rich left Philippe Bros over its conservative approach to trading and refusal to pay him what he thought he was worth.[1]
Marc Rich + Co
In April 1974, Rich and Pincus Green, a senior member of the Philipp Brothers group, and several other traders at the company started their own trading firm, Marc Rich + Co AG (MRAG).[2] The company was based in Zug, Switzerland.[1] Additional offices were initially located in London and Madrid.[2]
Following the creation of MRAG, Rich initially lived in London where his third daughter, Danielle, was born in March 1975. A subsidiary of the Swiss company was operating in New York from 1978.[2]
Marc Rich + Co did business with a number of controversial regimes, including Apartheid South Africa, Rumania and Chile. Rich continued to trade with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.[1]
In 1981, Rich bought a stake in Twentieth Century Fox which he later sold to Rupert Murdoch.[1]
rich moved to Switzerland in 1983.[2] In the same year, he was indicted by US Federal Prosecutor Rudy Guiliani, accused of evading taxes worth $48 million and trading illegally. He refused to return to the United States and was placed on the Justice Department's 'most wanted' list.[1] R
Rich began a relationship with German-born widow Gisela Rossi in 1989.[1]
In 1993, Rich sold his interest in the commodities trading section of the Marc Rich Group, to its managers, as Glencore. At the same time, he began to establish a second, smaller commodities trading company.[2]
Rich reached a reported $200 million divorce settlement with his wife Denise in 1996.[1] In September 1996, their second daughter, Gabrielle died, after having suffered from Hodgkin's disease and then leukemia since the age of 23.[2]
In 2000, Rich hired Washington lawyers to negotiate a settlement with the US Government, and they in turn approached his ex-wife, Denise, a Democratic donor. At a fundraiser in November 2000, she presented President Bill Clinton with a golden saxophone. she reportedly asked for a pardon at the subsequent White House farewell dinner.[1]
Clinton issued a pardon hours before leaving office in January 2001. He later said that the outstanding allegations had been civil rather than criminal matters, and that he had received please in Rich's support from the Israeli Government.[1]
Rich became an Honorary Fellow of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in 2008.[2]
Affiliations
Connections
External resources
- NameBase Marc Rich
