Marc Rich
Encyclopedia
Marc Rich is an international commodities
trader
and entrepreneur
. He is best known for founding the commodities company Glencore
. He was indicted in the United States
on federal charges of illegally making oil deals with Iran
during the late 1970s-early 1980s Iran hostage crisis
and tax evasion
. He was in Switzerland
at the time of the indictment and has never returned to the U.S.
He subsequently received a presidential pardon from U.S. President
Bill Clinton
on January 20, 2001, Clinton's last day in office.
to the United States in 1941 to escape the Nazis
. Rich attended high school at the Rhodes Preparatory School
in the Manhattan
borough
of New York City
. He later attended New York University
, in Manhattan, but dropped out after one semester to go work for Philipp Brothers
(now known as Phibro LLC). He worked as a commodities trader for his father, who sought to build an American manufacturing
fortune
through burlap-sack production.
Mark Rich married Denise Eisenberg, a songwriter
and an heiress
to a New England
shoe manufacturing fortune, in 1966. They divorced in 1996; she continues to use the name Denise Rich. They had three children, one of whom, Gabrielle Rich Aouad, predeceased her parents.
He worked with Philipp Brothers, a dealer in metals, learning about the international raw materials markets and commercial trading with poor, third-world
nations. One of his biggest market coups came during the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo
, when he used his Middle East
ern contacts to circumvent the embargo
and buy crude oil from Iran and Iraq
. After purchasing the crude for roughly US$
12 per barrel, Rich doubled the price and sold it to supply-starved U.S. oil companies. In 1974 he and co-worker Pincus Green
set up their own company.
Rich has been credited with having created the spot market
for crude oil in the early 1970s, revolutionizing commodity trading. His
tutelage under Philipp Brothers afforded Rich opportunities to strike deals with various dictator
ial régime
s and embargoed nations, such as Iran, using a special relationship with Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, the Shah of Iran
. Despite the American embargo, Iran would become Rich's most important supplier of crude oil for more than 15 years. He earned billions selling oil for the Iranian ayatollahs.
His company, Marc Rich Real Estate GmbH, is involved in large developer projects (e.g., in Prague
, Czech Republic
). Rich was also accused of being involved with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International
.
reported Rich had a net worth
of US$1 billion in 2011, a significant decrease from previous wealth.
(and future mayor
of New York City) Rudolph Giuliani, on illegal trading with Iran and charges of tax evasion. They were indicted while they were in Switzerland. The pair failed to return to the U.S. following the indictment, and were on the Federal Bureau of Investigation
's Ten Most-Wanted Fugitives List
for many years.
In 1989 the U.S. Justice Department ceased using statutes of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
in tax cases such as the one in which Rich and Green were indicted, and relied instead on civil
lawsuits. However, Marc Rich remained on page 1 of the Justice Department's Most Wanted International Fugitives.
On January 20, 2001, hours before leaving office, Clinton granted Rich a presidential pardon. Because Rich's former wife had made large donations to the U.S. Democratic Party and the Clinton Library during Clinton's time in office, Clinton's critics alleged that Rich's pardon had been bought. Marc Rich had made substantial donations to Israel
i charitable foundations. Clinton explained his decision by noting that similar situations were settled in civil, not criminal court, and cited clemency pleas from Israeli government officials, including then-Prime Minister
Ehud Barak
. Federal Prosecutor Mary Jo White
was appointed to investigate. She stepped down before the investigation was finished and was replaced by James Comey. Comey was critical of Clinton's pardons and Eric Holder
's pardon recommendation. According to Rich's attorney, Holder advised to circumvent standard procedures and to submit the pardon petition directly to the White House.
As a condition to the pardon, it was made clear that Rich would drop all procedural defenses against any civil actions brought against him by the U.S. upon his return there. That condition was consistent with the position that his alleged wrongdoing warranted only civil penalties, not criminal punishment. As of November 2010, Rich has not returned to the U.S. During hearings after Rich's pardon, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who had represented Rich from 1985 until the spring of 2000, denied that Rich had violated the tax laws but criticized him for trading with Iran at a time when that country was holding U.S. hostages.
In his February 18, 2001, op-ed
essay
in The New York Times
, Clinton (by then out of office) explained why he pardoned Rich, noting that U.S. tax professors Bernard Wolfman of the Harvard Law School
and Martin Ginsburg of Georgetown University Law Center
, concluded that no crime was committed, and that Rich's companies' tax-reporting position was reasonable. In the same essay Clinton listed Libby as one of three "distinguished Republican lawyers" who supported Rich's pardon.
Clinton's pardon was also supported by the Spain
's King
Juan Carlos I
. Speculation about another rationale for Rich's pardon involves his alleged involvement with the Israeli intelligence community. Rich claims he provided valuable information to the Mossad
, Israel’s intelligence service.
, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland
, are corporate successors to Marc Rich & Co AG.
or "diplomatic officer" outside the U.S. and "sign an oath of renunciation". Today he holds Spanish and Israeli passport
s.
, Switzerland, Rich moved to Meggen
, a city in the Canton of Lucerne
, Switzerland, residing in a house called "La villa rose" (the pink villa) on the shores of Swiss Lake Lucerne
, where he zealously guards his privacy. Rich also owns property in the ski resort of St. Moritz
, Switzerland, and in Marbella
, Spain. He is an important art
collector
and friends say he lives surrounded by Renoir
s, Monets and Picassos.
from Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, in recognition of his contribution to Israel and to the university's research programs. He received the same honor from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
, Beersheba
, Israel, on November 18, 2007. The Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer
in suburban Tel-Aviv, Israel, honored Rich with the "Sheba Humanitarian Award 2008". Former recipients of this award include actor Michael Douglas
, actress Elizabeth Taylor
and former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford.
Commodity
In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....
trader
Trader (finance)
A trader is someone in finance who buys and sells financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities and derivatives. A broker who simply fills buy or sell orders is not a trader, as they are merely executing instructions given to them. According to the Wall Street Journal in 2004, a managing...
and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
. He is best known for founding the commodities company Glencore
Glencore
Glencore International plc is a multinational mining and commodities trading company headquartered in Baar, Switzerland and with its registered office in Saint Helier, Jersey...
. He was indicted in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on federal charges of illegally making oil deals with Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
during the late 1970s-early 1980s Iran hostage crisis
Iran hostage crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...
and tax evasion
Tax avoidance and tax evasion
Tax noncompliance describes a range of activities that are unfavorable to a state's tax system. These include tax avoidance, which refers to reducing taxes by legal means, and tax evasion which refers to the criminal non-payment of tax liabilities....
. He was in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
at the time of the indictment and has never returned to the U.S.
He subsequently received a presidential pardon from U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
on January 20, 2001, Clinton's last day in office.
Early life, marriage and career
Marcell David Reich was born in 1934 to a Jewish family in Antwerp, Belgium. His family emigratedEmigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
to the United States in 1941 to escape the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. Rich attended high school at the Rhodes Preparatory School
Rhodes Preparatory School
Rhodes Preparatory School was a private school located at 11 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York City, USA. There was a lower school with students in seventh and eighth grades and an upper school for students from grades nine through twelve. For a brief period in its history, there were also...
in the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He later attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, in Manhattan, but dropped out after one semester to go work for Philipp Brothers
Philipp Brothers
Phibro LLC is an international commodities trading firm and a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation . Phibro trades in crude oil, oil products, natural gas, precious and base metals, agricultural products, commodity-related equities and other products...
(now known as Phibro LLC). He worked as a commodities trader for his father, who sought to build an American manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
fortune
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
through burlap-sack production.
Mark Rich married Denise Eisenberg, a songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and an heiress
Beneficiary
A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...
to a New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
shoe manufacturing fortune, in 1966. They divorced in 1996; she continues to use the name Denise Rich. They had three children, one of whom, Gabrielle Rich Aouad, predeceased her parents.
He worked with Philipp Brothers, a dealer in metals, learning about the international raw materials markets and commercial trading with poor, third-world
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
nations. One of his biggest market coups came during the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...
, when he used his Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern contacts to circumvent the embargo
Embargo
An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is...
and buy crude oil from Iran and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. After purchasing the crude for roughly US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
12 per barrel, Rich doubled the price and sold it to supply-starved U.S. oil companies. In 1974 he and co-worker Pincus Green
Pincus Green
Pincus Green is an American oil and gas commodities trader whose net worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.2 billion USD. Green fled the United States in 1983, along with partner Marc Rich, after being indicted by U.S...
set up their own company.
Rich has been credited with having created the spot market
Spot market
The spot market or cash market is a public financial market, in which financial instruments or commodities are traded for immediate delivery. It contrasts with a futures market in which delivery is due at a later date...
for crude oil in the early 1970s, revolutionizing commodity trading. His
tutelage under Philipp Brothers afforded Rich opportunities to strike deals with various dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
ial régime
Regime
The word regime refers to a set of conditions, most often of a political nature.-Politics:...
s and embargoed nations, such as Iran, using a special relationship with Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
, the Shah of Iran
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (reg. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty ...
. Despite the American embargo, Iran would become Rich's most important supplier of crude oil for more than 15 years. He earned billions selling oil for the Iranian ayatollahs.
His company, Marc Rich Real Estate GmbH, is involved in large developer projects (e.g., in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
). Rich was also accused of being involved with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The Bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. Within a decade BCCI touched its peak...
.
Net worth
ForbesForbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
reported Rich had a net worth
Net worth
In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. For a company, this is called shareholders' preference and may be referred to as book value. Net worth is stated as at a particular year in time...
of US$1 billion in 2011, a significant decrease from previous wealth.
U.S. indictment and controversial pardon
In 1983 Rich and Green were indicted by then-U.S. Federal ProsecutorUnited States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
(and future mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of New York City) Rudolph Giuliani, on illegal trading with Iran and charges of tax evasion. They were indicted while they were in Switzerland. The pair failed to return to the U.S. following the indictment, and were on the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
's Ten Most-Wanted Fugitives List
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...
for many years.
In 1989 the U.S. Justice Department ceased using statutes of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization...
in tax cases such as the one in which Rich and Green were indicted, and relied instead on civil
Private law
Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the jus commune that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts or torts, as it is called in the common law, and the law of obligations as it is called in civilian legal systems...
lawsuits. However, Marc Rich remained on page 1 of the Justice Department's Most Wanted International Fugitives.
On January 20, 2001, hours before leaving office, Clinton granted Rich a presidential pardon. Because Rich's former wife had made large donations to the U.S. Democratic Party and the Clinton Library during Clinton's time in office, Clinton's critics alleged that Rich's pardon had been bought. Marc Rich had made substantial donations to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i charitable foundations. Clinton explained his decision by noting that similar situations were settled in civil, not criminal court, and cited clemency pleas from Israeli government officials, including then-Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 until 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011 and holds the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government....
. Federal Prosecutor Mary Jo White
Mary Jo White
Mary Jo White was the first woman to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving from 1993 to 2002.White was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in McLean, Virginia. She received her B.S...
was appointed to investigate. She stepped down before the investigation was finished and was replaced by James Comey. Comey was critical of Clinton's pardons and Eric Holder
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African American to hold the position, serving under President Barack Obama....
's pardon recommendation. According to Rich's attorney, Holder advised to circumvent standard procedures and to submit the pardon petition directly to the White House.
As a condition to the pardon, it was made clear that Rich would drop all procedural defenses against any civil actions brought against him by the U.S. upon his return there. That condition was consistent with the position that his alleged wrongdoing warranted only civil penalties, not criminal punishment. As of November 2010, Rich has not returned to the U.S. During hearings after Rich's pardon, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who had represented Rich from 1985 until the spring of 2000, denied that Rich had violated the tax laws but criticized him for trading with Iran at a time when that country was holding U.S. hostages.
In his February 18, 2001, op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Clinton (by then out of office) explained why he pardoned Rich, noting that U.S. tax professors Bernard Wolfman of the Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
and Martin Ginsburg of Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
, concluded that no crime was committed, and that Rich's companies' tax-reporting position was reasonable. In the same essay Clinton listed Libby as one of three "distinguished Republican lawyers" who supported Rich's pardon.
Clinton's pardon was also supported by the Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
's King
King
- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...
Juan Carlos I
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...
. Speculation about another rationale for Rich's pardon involves his alleged involvement with the Israeli intelligence community. Rich claims he provided valuable information to the Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
, Israel’s intelligence service.
Legacy
Glencore International AG and Trafigura AGTrafigura
Trafigura is an Amsterdam-based multinational company founded in 1993 trading in base metals and energy, including oil. the company had equity of more than $2 billion and a turnover of $73 billion that generated $440 million of profit....
, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland
Baar, Switzerland
Baar is a village in the canton of Zug in Switzerland.-Geography:Baar has an area, , of . Of this area, 55% is used for agricultural purposes, while 24.5% is forested...
, are corporate successors to Marc Rich & Co AG.
Citizenship
Although Rich believed that he had relinquished his United States citizenship when he became a citizen of Spain, an appeals court ruled in 1991 that for purposes of U.S. law Rich remains a citizen and therefore is still subject to U.S. income taxes. In order to renounce U.S. citizenship, a citizen must "appear in person before a U.S. consularConsul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
or "diplomatic officer" outside the U.S. and "sign an oath of renunciation". Today he holds Spanish and Israeli passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
s.
Private life
After spending several years in ZugZug
Zug , is a German-speaking city in Switzerland. The name ‘Zug’ originates from fishing vocabulary; in the Middle Ages it referred to the right to ‘pull up’ fishing nets and hence to the right to fish.The city of Zug is located in the Canton of Zug and is its capital...
, Switzerland, Rich moved to Meggen
Meggen
Meggen is a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland.-History:Meggen is first mentioned in 1226 as Meken, though a 14th Century copy of an older document mentions in Acta Murensia around 1160.-Geography:...
, a city in the Canton of Lucerne
Canton of Lucerne
Lucerne is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population of the canton is . , the population included 57,268 foreigners, or about 15.8% of the total population. The cantonal capital is Lucerne.-History:...
, Switzerland, residing in a house called "La villa rose" (the pink villa) on the shores of Swiss Lake Lucerne
Lake Lucerne
Lake Lucerne is a lake in central Switzerland and the fourth largest in the country.The lake has a complicated shape, with bends and arms reaching from the city of Lucerne into the mountains. It has a total area of 114 km² , an elevation of 434 m , and a maximum depth of 214 m . Its volume is 11.8...
, where he zealously guards his privacy. Rich also owns property in the ski resort of St. Moritz
St. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
, Switzerland, and in Marbella
Marbella
Marbella is a town in Andalusia, Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, in the province of Málaga, beneath the La Concha mountain. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234, in 2010 approximately 135,000....
, Spain. He is an important art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
collector
Collecting
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...
and friends say he lives surrounded by Renoir
Renoir
-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...
s, Monets and Picassos.
Awards
In May 2007 Rich received an honorary doctorateHonorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
from Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, in recognition of his contribution to Israel and to the university's research programs. He received the same honor from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is a university in Beersheba, Israel, established in 1969. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has a current enrollment of 17,400 students, and is one of Israel's fastest growing universities....
, Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
, Israel, on November 18, 2007. The Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer
Sheba Medical Center
The Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer , also Tel HaShomer Hospital, is the largest hospital in Israel.-Overview:The hospital was named after Chaim Sheba, the founding director. It was established in 1948 as the country's first military hospital to treat casualties of Israel's War of...
in suburban Tel-Aviv, Israel, honored Rich with the "Sheba Humanitarian Award 2008". Former recipients of this award include actor Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
, actress Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
and former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford.
See also
- Bank of Credit and Commerce InternationalBank of Credit and Commerce InternationalThe Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The Bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. Within a decade BCCI touched its peak...
- Bill Clinton pardons controversyBill Clinton pardons controversyPresident Bill Clinton was criticized for some of his pardons and acts of executive clemency. While most presidents grant pardons on several days throughout their terms, Clinton chose to make most of them on January 20, 2001. Collectively, the controversy surrounding these actions has sometimes...
- List of people pardoned by Bill Clinton
- The Rich BoysThe Rich BoysThe Rich Boys refers to an elite circle of oil and mineral trading figures under the tutelage of one-time fugitive financier Marc Rich, as identified in a July, 2005 investigative report by journalist Marcia Vickers for BusinessWeek magazine....
- Marc Rich &Co v Bishop Rock Marine Co Ltd [1996] AC 211