GENEVA - One of the world's wealthiest men is no longer one ofthe world's most wanted men. After sheltering for more than 15years in Switzerland to escape U.S. charges of racketeering and taxevasion, Marc Rich was granted a pardon in the final hours of BillClinton's presidency on Saturday.
The decision to pardon Rich marked the final chapter in aremarkable legal and political drama between the United States andSwitzerland involving the hugely successful and highly secretivecommodities trader.
Rich, whose Marc Rich Group is based in central Switzerland,could not be reached for immediate comment Sunday. A man answeringhis home telephone said he was on vacation.
Rich earned the hatred of U.S. labor unions during a strike inWest Virginia. They accused him of being responsible for locking out1,500 members of the United Steelworkers of America at the WestVirginia-based Ravens-wood Aluminum Corp., which he partly owned.After a 20-month dispute, the Steelworkers reached agreement on anew contract in June 1992.
In 1990, the company's business was heavily concentrated onproducing flat rolled aluminum used in beverage cans. But much ofthat business disappeared during the company's 20-month fight withthe Steelworkers.
When their contract expired on Oct. 31, 1990, without a newagreement in place, the Steelworkers offered to continue to workunder the terms of the expired contract. But at midnight that night,union members were ordered to leave company property and replacementworkers were brought in to run the plant.
In the course of the two-year battle that followed, the unionwaged a high-profile campaign that persuaded Coca Cola Bottling Co.and Stroh Brewery Co. to stop buying aluminum from Ravenswood.
After union disputes, boardroom battles, defections anddismissals, Rich left the company he had founded - Marc Rich & Co. -in 1993. It was subsequently renamed Glencore and remains one of theworld's largest commodity dealers.
Rich went back into business in late 1995 with the Marc RichGroup. The Swiss business magazine Bilanz calculated his wealth at$900 million to $1.3 billion.
The commodities trader often took his holidays at the exclusiveski resort of St. Moritz and was a familiar face at conferences. Butnow he will be able to go beyond Swiss borders without fear of beingsnatched by U.S. law enforcement officers. His ex-wife, Denise, is aDemocratic Party fund-raiser, and reportedly a close friend ofClinton.
Rich, who has citizenship in the United States, Spain and Israel,was indicted in 1983 by a U.S. federal grand jury on more than 50counts of wire fraud, racketeering, trading with the enemy andevading more than $48 million in income taxes - crimes that couldhave earned him more than 300 years in prison.
He allegedly made vast profits through a huge, illegal oil-pricing scheme in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis and evaded taxesby shifting profits from his U.S. subsidiary to the parent companyin low-tax Switzerland. He also was accused of making deals withIran during the U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.
"In 1980, Marc David Rich conspired with the Iranian governmentto purchase over six million barrels of oil, in violation of thetrade embargo imposed against Iran by the United States," read theU.S. Department of Justice Fugitive Lookout notice.
"The payments were made fraudulently through American banks andthe illegal use of American telecommunications facilities," said thenotice, still posted on the Internet on Sunday.
When Clinton was asked Sunday why he pardoned Rich, he gave nodetails, but said Rich's attorney Jack Quinn had provided compellingreasons for the pardon.
"I spent a lot of personal time [on the Rich case] because it'san unusual case, but Quinn made a strong case and I would suggest hewas right on the merits," Clinton said. Asked if he thought everyonehe pardoned in his final days deserved it, Clinton said,"Absolutely. I wouldn't have done any if I hadn't thought that."
In 1982, a New York judge subpoenaed documents from Rich'scompany, handing out a contempt fine of $50,000 per day until hecomplied. The Swiss regarded this as a challenge to nationalsovereignty, saying that normal diplomatic channels should have beenfollowed. In a bizarre twist, the Swiss subsequently seized Rich'sdocuments to prevent them from being sent to the U.S. court.
In July 1984, the United States demanded his extradition. TheSwiss refused, saying that tax evasion was not a crime inSwitzerland.
Although Rich later reached an out-of-court settlement in theUnited States for about $150 million in tax payments, he remained onthe fugitives list for other charges. In 1992, a treasury departmentagency even briefly considered kidnapping Rich from Switzerland.
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