The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich

oil trader in England, who had worked for Rich for many years before successfully going into business for himself, once told me without any hint of irony, “Marc was a titan, no, more than that. He was our God. When he called to congratulate you on a profitable trade, it was like God called you.”
    From the “biggest devil” to “God”—there can be no greater span when it comes to evaluating a person. Pitch black or snow white. Why is Rich so polarizing? How does he manage to stir such emotions? There is a psychological explanation for this phenomenon: It is easy to pigeonhole Rich. We can ignore the ambiguities and complexities of Rich’s person, as well as the ambiguities and complexities of the oil trade in general. If we demonize Rich—or if we make him appear larger than life—we make it easier for ourselves to forget the moral and political contradictions of our own actions.
    Most commodities come from countries that are not beacons of democracy and human rights. “The resource curse” and “the paradox of plenty” are the terms economists and political scientists use to describe the fact that countries that are rich in oil, gas, or metals are usually plagued by poverty, corruption, and misgovernment. 15 If commodities traders want to be successful, they are forced—much like journalists or intelligence agents, who will take their information from any source—to sit down with people that they would rather not have as friends, and they apparently have to resort to practices that are either frowned upon or downright illegal in other parts of the world.
    “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” an oil trader once said inresponse to one of my questions. He had spent a lot of time in Nigeria, one of the most corrupt countries in the world, which just happens to possess immense oil reserves. I wanted to know what he meant. “If you want to get pregnant, you can’t stay a virgin,” he said. Of course, he admitted, he had paid bribes in order to receive contracts. “[Marc Rich’s] trading empire was based largely on systematic bribes and kickbacks to corrupt local officials,” alleged the House Committee on Government Reform, which carried out an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Rich’s pardon. 16 The oil trader in Nigeria does not accept this charge. “We would be neither as successful nor would we still be in business if we had only paid bribes. More importantly, we offered our customers a better service than our competitors.” Rich himself does not deny having authorized bribes (see chapter 14 ).
The Final Frontier
     
    “I’m driven by what drives most people: ambition,” Rich said to me. “Mankind has developed through ambitions. Some wanted to climb higher, some wanted to run faster, some wanted to fly, others to dive. I wanted to succeed in business.” His final frontier was the earth’s crust and the treasures it contains. In order to achieve his ambitions, he traded with anyone who would trade with him, be they dictators or democrats, communists or capitalists. Born Jewish, he supported Israel and nonetheless made deals with the Iranian Islamists who wanted to destroy the Jewish state. Even South Africa’s apartheid regime could count on him. This all made him one of the richest men in the world—and a bogeyman to all political camps. The Left sees him not as Marx but as an exploiter of the third world. The Right considers him a traitor for doing business with Iran and Cuba. Both sides see him as the greatest tax fraudster of all time. He maintains his innocence and insists that he never broke any laws. His lawyers provide long explanations detailing how all of his business dealings were perfectly legal under Swiss law, but public opinion remains unmoved by this argument—not to mention the Americanpoliticians who are convinced that the opposite is the case. “It is clear that Rich built his fortune doing business without legal, ethical, or even moral restraints,” the House Committee on Government Reform concluded. 17
    Rich, who of all people always maintained that his company acted “apolitically,” sank ever deeper in the political meat grinder. His trading with Iran after Khomeini’s seizure of power remains his mortal sin, but American politicians also get angry about his alleged dealings with Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Libya “even after U.S. oil companies completely withdrew from the country.” 18 They denounce him for selling grain to the Soviet