In 1983, a federal prosecutor called it the biggest tax evasion case in American history.
The man at the center of it was an oil trader named Marc Rich.
He never spent a day in court.
Prosecutors said he hid more than $100 million in oil profits and evaded $48 million in taxes. According to the lead prosecutor, there were two sets of books.
Then there was Iran.
In November 1979, revolutionaries seized the US embassy in Tehran. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days. Washington banned trade with Iran.
Rich kept buying Iranian oil.
In September 1983, a federal grand jury indicted him. The final count reached 65 charges, including tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering and trading with the enemy. Convicted on all of them, he faced more than 300 years in prison.
He was already in Zug.
Switzerland refused to extradite him. Under the treaty, tax evasion was not an extraditable offence. And Switzerland had no embargo on Iran.
In 1984, his companies pleaded guilty and paid about $200 million. Rich himself stayed in Switzerland, one of America’s most wanted fugitives, for 17 years. He kept trading. In 1994, his company was renamed Glencore.
On 20 January 2001, in the final hours of his presidency, Bill Clinton pardoned him. The usual Justice Department review was skipped.
Rich’s ex-wife, Denise, had given more than $1 million to Democratic causes and $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library. Clinton denied any link. Federal investigators found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Rich died in Lucerne in 2013, aged 78. He never set foot in an American courtroom.
Glencore is still based in the canton of Zug. It is one of the largest commodity traders on earth.
That is not a conspiracy theory. That is the pardon.
How this letter survives. No sponsors, no paywall. It is paid for by two things: the book, and readers who chip in. Without that, the only option is ads for products that have nothing to do with what you read, and sooner or later, pressure to write what advertisers are comfortable with. I would rather answer to you. If this letter is worth something to you, $10 a month, or any amount once, keeps it independent. → Keep the letter free
Marc Rich did not break the system. He used it. A border that stops prosecutors, a treaty that does not cover tax, a pardon that requires no explanation. Every lever he pulled is still there. The book maps all of them. Dark Money: How Wealth, Power, and Intelligence Really Work.
The Dark Money Letter is published every Wednesday and Sunday. → thedarkmoneyletter.com
Sources
US District Court, Southern District of New York, indictment of Marc Rich and Pincus Green, 1983 (superseding indictment 1984)
Settlement of Marc Rich + Co and Clarendon Ltd with the US government, October 1984
Presidential pardon of Marc Rich, 20 January 2001
House Committee on Government Reform, hearings on the Rich pardon, 2001
Bill Clinton, “My Reasons for the Pardons,” The New York Times, 18 February 2001