Marc Rich
Marc Rich (born 18 December 1934 in Antwerp as Marcell David Reich, † June 26, 2013 in Lucerne ) was a Spanish- Israeli internationally active real estate and financial investor and one of the most successful and controversial commodities traders worldwide.
Life
Youth and escape to the United States
Marc Rich's parents were German -speaking Jews. The mother Paula was originally from Saarbrücken, the father of David from the shtetl of Przemysl in Poland and went to Frankfurt later. There traded father David with all Moving from scrap metal to shoes. After the seizure of power by the Nazis, his parents fled from Frankfurt to Belgium, where Rich came as Marcell David Reich in December 1934 in Antwerp to the world. The imperial family fled from the German army before the complete occupation of Belgium with a car to unoccupied Vichy France. A year later, the family succeeded to escape at the last minute with no money on a cargo ship from Marseilles to Morocco. Finally, they came up with the freighter Monviso in the United States. In New York, the family, at that time no one could speak English from the first time with relatives lived. Then she moved first to Philadelphia, then on to Kansas City and finally back to New York in the borough of Queens, where many Jewish immigrants lived. 1945 received the imperial American citizenship and changed their name to Rich.
Before settling the family, the young Marc nearly every year went to primary and secondary education in another school. In Queens, Marc held often in his father's business and worked with there. The father acted with jewelry, auto parts and tobacco. With jute bags, which urgently needed the Army during the Korean War (1950-1953) for sandbags, he brought it to a certain prosperity.
Marc Rich was in Manhattan for private Rhodes School ( High School ) and studied from 1952 to two semesters marketing at New York University.
Professional career
It began in 1954 when commodity companies Philip Brothers, the then world's biggest commodities trader, which was conducted by a group of German-Jewish emigrants to Ludwig Jesselson, as an apprentice. 1964-1974 he worked as Manager of the Philipp Brothers offices in Spain. In the early 1970s he created today's trading of crude oil (spot market).
Rich founded in 1974 with some of his companions, including Pincus Green, a private resource companies that " Marc Rich Co AG " with headquarters in the Swiss train. This company has over the decades become one of the best known and most successful companies in the industry. 1979, it was renamed " Marc Rich Co Holding AG ". 1993 Marc Rich sold the trading range of Marc Rich Co Holding AG to the manager. It was the company Glencore. In 1996, Marc Rich, the " Marc Rich Co Investment AG ," a small commodities trading group. 1997 " Marc Rich Co Holding AG" in which was " Marc Rich Co Holding GmbH" converted, via their shares in " Marc Rich Co Investment" in 2001 negotiations with the belonging to the Russian Alfa Group " Crown Resources " ran, but it was not for sale, according to the company website. 2003, the share capital of " Marc Rich Co Investment AG " was reduced because of an adverse balance. From 1 July 2011, it operates under the name " MRI Trading AG ", next is still the " Marc Rich Real Estate GmbH ".
By trading the apartheid regime co-financed and promoted despite international embargo in South Africa ( among other things gave his company 15% of all oil cargoes 1979-1993 and 50 tanker loads, between February 1982 and November 1986), he kept it in power. The oil supply is estimated to be at least 400 million barrels, the profit for Rich's company at two billion dollars. Rich called it himself as his " most important and most profitable " business relationship. After the rival firm Phibro -Salomon had retired after the proclamation of the state of emergency and the Rubicon speech Botha's South Africa from a business in 1985, took over Rich export to the South African Black Mountain, one of the largest gold mines in the world.
Rich's companies were for years the most important supplier of crude oil to Israel with a share of up to 60-90 % of the demand ( in the long-term average over 20 %). Was procured the oil in Iran - even while the United States because of the taking of hostages in the Tehran embassy (1979-1981) had sanctions imposed an import ban and the EU foreign ministers.
In May 2007, Marc Rich was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bar - Ilan University in Ramat Gan. The second largest Israeli university established the ceremony with Marc Rich's decades- long financial commitment to medical research in the fight against leukemia and the projects of its foundations to international understanding. A prize for social engagement was the founder of the Rich Rich Foundations ( Sheba Humanitarian Award 2008).
He was married from 1966 to 1996 with the songwriter Denise Eisenberg Rich and the couple have three daughters (born 1967, from 1969 to 1996, * 1975). His fortune was estimated in 2012 by the Swiss business magazine balance to 850 million Swiss francs ( 700 million euros).
Rich lived most recently in Lucerne Meggen. He died on 26 June 2013 following a stroke at the age of 78 years in a Lucerne Hospital. A day later he was buried near Tel Aviv in Israel.
Impeachment and pardon
Marc Rich and other traders in 1983 of tax evasion, false statements, trade with Iran and the controversial RICO ( Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, Trading with the Enemy Act ) by Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who later became mayor of New York accused. Giuliani described Rich as " the biggest tax cheat in U.S. history ." However, a process never came into being, as Marc Rich had already sold a few months before the indictment by train, where his company was established since 1974, was waived in September 1982, the American nationality and was naturalized in Spain, where he ten had lived for years. In addition, he was a citizen of Israel. Rich made a former Mossad agent to his security consultant; this is now drawing legitimate member of the Board of Trustees of the Marc Rich Foundation. A directed against his Swiss company files available publication of the American authorities designated by the Swiss Federal Council in 1985 as a violation of international law.
Rich stood for years on the list of " Most Wanted " by the FBI. A 1985 planned kidnapping in the United States failed in a Note to Swiss authorities. 2001 Marc Rich was probably the best known of the 140 pardons President Clinton spoke on his last day in office. Marc Rich had previously expressed concerns about whether the clemency of his business partner Green could not adversely affect his own. Among other things, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak had used personally for Rich. Ehud Olmert, another advocate, had eight years earlier received from Rich a generous donation for Israeli conditions for his mayoral campaign. With Clinton's pardon was revoked the indictment against Rich. Because Rich's former wife and mother of his three children during Clinton's term of office had provided substantial donations to the Democratic Party ( $ 450,000 for the Clinton Library), has been widely argued that the amnesty had been bought. President Clinton, however, explained that the decision was made on the basis of the facts and accusations because similar civilized fashion had been processed.
The Marc Rich Collection at Kunsthaus Zurich
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of photography gave Marc Rich in 1989 the Kunsthaus Zurich own photo collection. There are mainly black and white prints, these represent the development of classic art photography since the late 19th century. The collection forms the basis for the museum's collection of classic art photography of the famous Zurich Kunsthaus.
It ranges from the early pioneers ( William Henry Fox Talbot, Charles Marville ) over the pictorialism of " Photo-Secession " (Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen ), the " Straight Photography " (Paul beach, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams) up to Surrealism, Constructivism and Bauhaus ( Man Ray, László Moholy -Nagy ) and the poetic- documentary realism of the mid-20th century ( Henri Cartier- Bresson, Robert Frank).
The Swiss Foundation for the Doron Price
The Swiss Foundation for the Doron Prize was founded in 1986 by Marc Rich Group and is awarded annually on average personal, unselfish and successful achievements in the fields of culture, the common good and the sciences. Two winners will be honored each year. In 2007, the Swiss Youth written work ( SJW) and the hospital clowns of the Theodora Foundation Doron price, which is worth 50,000 Swiss francs received.
The Rich Foundations supported worldwide to date around 4,000 non-profit projects with over $ 135 million.