Controversial Fugitive Marc Rich, King of Oil dead at 78 | Switzerland
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The most controversial and legendary "King of Commodities" (a.k.a "King of Oil") died in Switzerland at the age of 78. He passed away in a hospital in Lucerne as a result of a brain stroke, a spokesman said in a statement.
Reuters reported that the remains of Marc Rich will be sent to Israel for burial. He will be buried on thursday at Kibbutz Einat cemetery near Tel Aviv.
Marc pioneered the oil trading industry in the early 70s. In a few years time, he became successful in his trading business. But a dark side of him was revealed by journalist Daniel Ammann who interviewed him for his biography, "The King of Oil". Marc Rich made multiple bribery acts to officials in countries such as Nigeria and to assisting the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
He was criticized as a white-collar criminal, a serial sanctions breaker, who they accused of building a fortune trading with revolutionary Iran, Muammar Gaddafi's Libya, apartheid-era South Africa, Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania, Fidel Castro's Cuba and Augusto Pinochet's Chile.
Rich became a fugitive in 1983 and fled to Switzerland to escape charges over the alleged exploitation of the U.S. embargo against Iran to make huge profits on illicit Iranian oil sales. He was also indicted for wire fraud, racketeering and then-biggest tax evasion case in U.S. history.
He remained under threat of a life sentence in a U.S. jail until Clinton pardoned him during the last chaotic days of his presidency in 2002, a move that provoked moral outrage and bewilderment amongst some politicians. Clinton later said he regretted granting the pardon, calling it "terrible politics."
March Rich was the founder of Glencore which merged with Xstrata in May 2013 and officially named Glencore Xstrata, one of the largest diversified commodities traders in the world.