ON THE SPONTANEOUS RENEWAL OF OIL AND GAS FIELDS

[FrankDialogue]

Ai yi yi!...Ve got them coming and going!...Leachim tekich (Always take)!...Der goyem iz a goylem.

Finance used to be about investments, now it's just about 'increasing the spread'...Just like the NFL, which is now majority owned by....Price of oil?...Cost of extraction, production, transportation?...No, we hold it back to 'increase the spread for us'.

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Damning emails of Barclays  traders boasting about how they rigged energy prices  

'I totally f***** with the Palo market today': Damning emails of Barclays traders boasting about how they rigged energy prices to make profits

Critics said the expletive-ridden correspondence provides further evidence of the 'rotten    culture of casino banking' that built up under   Bob Diamond
    Bank faces £270million fine for allegedly manipulating energy market in US

By James Salmon  

PUBLISHED: 18:16 EST, 1 November 2012 | UPDATED: 02:47 EST, 2 November 2012

Emails and phone messages between foul-mouthed Barclays traders in New York reveal how they bragged about rigging energy prices in America to make huge profits.

Critics yesterday said the expletive-ridden correspondence provides further evidence of the 'rotten culture of casino banking' that built up under disgraced former boss    Bob Diamond.  

The bank faces a £270million fine by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allegedly manipulating the energy market across Western America between November 2006 and 2008.

Emails and phone messages between foul-mouthed Barclays traders in New York reveal how they bragged about rigging energy prices in America to make huge profits

Four traders are accused of conspiring to sell electricity at a loss to drive prices down.

This would enable simultaneous bets on falling energy prices to reap huge profits, leading to losses of £86million for other investors and pensions funds.
 

Now Barclays fined £270m for rigging US energy prices: Four traders at centre of scandal are hit with penalties totalling £11m

It is alleged to have taken place at four electricity-trading hubs across the western US – Mid Columbia in Washington State, Palo Verde in Phoenix, Arizona, and South Path 15 and North Path 15 in California.

These hubs are where electricity is channelled, stored and then distributed around the region.

Barclays and other banks trade in complicated financial instruments which bet on electricity price movements at these hubs.

The accused Barclays traders – Daniel Brin, Scott Connelly, Karen Levine and Ryan Smith – face penalties totalling £11million.
The bank faces a £270million fine by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allegedly manipulating the energy market across Western America between November 2006 and 2008

The bank faces a £270million fine by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allegedly manipulating the energy market across Western America between November 2006 and 2008

Connelly was described as 'the leader of the manipulative scheme' and the highest paid. He faces a £9.3million fine.

The bank was also ordered to pay back £22million in profits made from the alleged energy manipulation scam.

But, in arguably a more devastating blow to Barclays, the US regulator published a series of emails and phone messages sent by the bank's traders.

In a series of messages dated November 3, 2006, Ryan Smith bragged to a colleague that he had managed to manipulate the energy markets.

He said: 'I totally f****** with the Palo market today,' adding: 'I just started lifting the p*** out of the palo.' Smith continued: 'was fun. Need to do that more often.'

In a separate exchange on December 7, 2006, he said: 'I'm going to c*** on the NP light and it should drive the SP light lower.'

Critics said the crude messages reinforced the immoral, profit-crazed image that Barclays has desperately tried to shed since new chief executive Antony Jenkins took over in August.
Former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond
Four Barclays traders are accused of conspiring to sell electricity at a loss to drive prices down

Critics say the expletive-ridden correspondence provides further evidence of the 'rotten culture of casino banking' that built up under disgraced former boss of Barclays,

Bob Diamond, left  

John Mann, who sits on the Treasury select committee of MPs, said: 'This just shows how the rotten culture of casino banking that was built up under Bob Diamond went all the way through Barclays. Traders were clearly programmed to do anything to make a profit.'

The emails sent by Barclays' American traders have echoes of the brash messages sent by their counterparts in London who boasted about rigging key interest rates.

These were published in June when Barclays was fined £290million by UK and US regulators over the scandal. This led to the departure of Diamond and several other top executives. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott said: 'The American authorities' allegations of Enron-style rigging of electricity prices shows what a toxic trail Bob Diamond left behind him.'

All four traders accused of rigging the energy markets are thought to have left the bank, although none are understood to have been fired.

Barclays has been given 30 days to appeal and said it intends to do so. It said it 'strongly disagrees with the allegations', adding: 'We believe that our trading was legitimate and above board and intend to vigorously defend this matter.'

Barclays is likely to argue that it did not have big enough positions in the energy market to be able to manipulate prices.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ofits.html

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

$200 million for Jew Management....  

---------------

New support for    Glencore-Xstrata deal
Frik Els | November 5, 2012


New support for merger of Glencore and Xstrata   

ISS, which advises institutional investors in the US and the UK, has changed its position and is now in favour of a tie-up between Swiss neighbours Xstrata plc (LON:XTA) and Glencore International (LON:GLEN).

Shareholders will vote on the deal – initially billed as a 'merger of equals' in February, but now more resembling an unfriendly takeover – between the two commodities giants on November 20.

In September Glencore CEO and largest shareholder with more than 15%, Ivan Glasenberg, relented under pressure from large Xstrata shareholders like Qatar's sovereign wealth fund and upped the offer to 3.05 (from 2.8 shares before).

FT.com reports ISS's latest advice is that "given the reasonable premium, some strategic and corporate governance upside, and simplification of shareholder structure, we recommend that shareholders vote for the proposed transaction," adding that "the 22.1 per cent premium as measured in the September announcement appears as reasonable given the particular circumstances."

The proxy advisory service says Glencore which owns 34% of Xstrata already "effectively control" the miner and its options for another partner is limited, but it still opposes the more than generous $200 million set aside for 'retention bonuses' for Xstrata's top management.

The $200 million figure is actually $75 million less than what was called for in the original deal because as part of the revised offer, Glasenberg would take up the reins of the combined company and not current Xstrata CEO Mick Davis, who was earlier slated to lead a post-merger 'Glenstrata'.  

http://www.mining.com/new-support-for-g ... eal-12536/

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Well written and comprehensive coverage of Marc Rich via aangirfan. --CSR
---------

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

MARC RICH; JEWISH MAFIA


Marcell Reich, who calls himself Marc Rich, was born into a Jewish family in Belgium.

Allegedly, Marc Rich is an asset of the CIA, Mossad and the Russian Jewish Mafia.

According to Newsmax, Saturday, March 31, 2001:

"Mark Rich was a key figure in the .... creation of an underground government that survived the break-up of the Soviet Union and still rules Russia today behind the scenes."

Mark Rich Helped KGB Create Hidden Government

Former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak mentioned Rich's contributions to Israel's "national security" in phone calls to Clinton, according to statements from Barak's spokesman, Gadi Baltiansky.

A letter from former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit to Clinton confirmed that Rich had given "assistance" to Mossad.

http://www.7days.ae/2006/04/25/conspiracy-theory.html


Denise Rich (Denise Eisenberg), formerly married to Marc Rich. Website for this image

"Lewis Libby's real claim to fame is his 18-year collaboration with Russian Mafiya 'godfather' Marc Rich...

"Libby was the personal attorney for Rich from 1985, shortly after Rich fled the United States to avoid criminal prosecution for tax evasion and "trading with the enemy" - for illegal oil dealings with the Khomeini regime in Iran, while they were holding American hostages.

"Rich set up in Zug, Switzerland, and became one of the most important figures in busting the oil embargoes against apartheid South Africa, Iran, and, later, Iraq.

"All the while, Libby toiled as Rich's legal flack in America, presenting the swindler and Mossad bankroller as a victim of overzealous prosecutors."

LaRouche Points to Marc Rich's White House Mole: Lewis Libby

Ayatollah Khomeini, friend of Marc Rich and the CIA.

In 1974, Rich created Glencore, the world's largest commodity trader.
One of the places where Glencore makes money is Zambia, which has copper mines.
In 1964, Zambia nationalised its mines, but, the IMF and World Bank forced Zambia to privatise them.
Thus, Switzerland now makes more money from Zambia's copper than Zambia itself.


Children in Katanga Show Off Copper Finds. Photo: FairPhone. Children as young as ten climb down hand dug shafts into the Tilwezembe mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with no protective equipment, to recover cobalt and copper. A new BBC investigation alleges that copper ore is then trucked to buyers from Glencore

Rich was wanted by the US justice system for having traded with Iran and for tax evasion.

Rich had a special relationship with the CIA-MI6 asset Ayatollah Khomeini.

In 2001, Rich received a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton.

Rich has lived in Switzerland since 1983.

After spending several years in Zug, a place loved by Margaret Thatcher, Rich moved to Meggen, a city in the German speaking Canton of Lucerne.

Rich owns property in the ski resort of St. Moritz, Switzerland, and in Marbella, Spain.


marc rich home.

According to an article at : rense.com/general26/rich.htm

"Marc Rich, the commodity bandit and 'spook' was so interwoven with the White House of George Bush The Elder and later, Bill Clinton, you could not hardly tell whether the White House dirty tricks department was in Washington or Zug, Switzerland, one of Rich's outpposts...

"U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani (later N.Y. city Mayor), wanted to put Rich in jail.

"A Bush Family confidant, Giuliani nevertheless found out too late that Marc Rich was the American CIA's laundry man and was immune."


The late sheikh.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Saqr Al Qassimi was reportedly the victim of a conspiracy to defraud him and thousands of others out of millions of dollars they had invested in the global foreign exchange markets.

http://www.7days.ae/2006/04/25/conspiracy-theory.html

A company called Creative Finance had its assets frozen by the state prosecutor in Zug.

The Sheikh's company, Al Wafa Broker, had used Creative Finance to carry out foreign exchange transactions.

Around $20 million of Creative Finance's frozen assets were Al Wafa's.

There was a suspicion that certain people in Switzerland, linked to Marc Rich, were responsible for the situation.

"Rich was represented in Switzerland by Rudolf Mosimann, the chief prosecutor for canton Zug, who was also a director of Marc Rich AG, as well as thirty three other foreign firms registered in Zug."

Zug's former Mayor, Othmar Kamer, reportedly said: "We have six large tax contributors who influence our financial budget. Marc Rich is one of them."

http://www.7days.ae/2006/04/25/conspiracy-theory.html

Abramoff

According to an article at Lookingglassnews:

Indicted GOP lobbyist Abramoff operated sex, spy ring at Watergate ...

"Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury heard several agents testify in April that the 'Watergate, Ritz-Carlton and Sheraton Hotels in Washington, DC were used to compromise legislators and news-people with prostitution services, the financing of which is directly linked to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Marc Rich and Abramoff,' said national security expert Thomas Heneghan."



John le Carré, who was once a British spy, has written a spy novel entitled 'Our Kind of Traitor'.

The key character is Dima, whose money-laundering business is based in Switzerland.

Dima launders money for the Russian mafia, whom some call the Jewish Russian mafia.

Dima wants to retire to Britain.

He wants Britain's MI6 to arrange asylum in exchange for evidence incriminating his fellow bad guys who occupy top positions in Britain, Europe and America.

The top bad guy in the Russian mafia, the Prince, has killed Dima's ex-hooker wife.


John Le Carre, born David Cornwell

Le Carré alludes to the story of George Osborne, Peter Mandelson and Oleg Deripaska. (Our kind of Traitor by John le Carré.)

He refers to conflict diamonds, illegal oil deals with Iran, fake medicines and the banks kept afloat by drugs money.

He refers to a crooked British MP, on a yacht in the Adriatic.

Are there British traitors who have given away secrets to certain Russians?

Those who reportedly were traitors include Lord Victor Rothschild, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross.


Krays

Le Carre's father had links to The Kray Twins, who were Jewish gangsters. In 1999, the (London) Daily Mail pointed out that the gangster Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, were "of Jewish... stock."

John le Carré was a spook.

His father was a con man. (John le Carré interview - Telegraph)

Le Carre says of his father:

"He was a con man, a fraudster.

"He served four years for fraud, several of them in Wormwood Scrubs...

"When my sister, Charlotte, was researching her role in the film about the Krays she visited their mother.

"Mrs Kray showed her the family album and there was a photograph of our father with his arms around the Kray twins.

The Krays were murderous homosexual gangsters, allegedly linked to boy prostitution and top people.

Le Carre joined the secret service at the age of 17.


Marc Rich

In 2008, The London Evening Standard (That's Rich News)reported:

"Few recognised the avuncular American chuckling with Naomi Campbell at one of the summer's most spectacular parties in St Tropez...

"This was Marc Rich, one of the world's most secretive billionaires...

"Rich ... has emerged from the shadows, quitting his fortress-like home above Lake Lucerne in Switzerland...

"His house, in Meggen, Switzerland, is his stronghold...

"Rich employs an impressive corps of security people...

"Investigators in the United States claimed Rich's company was dealing with Iran during the US hostage crisis... They also believed he was dealing with other rogue states, including North Korea and Colonel Gaddafi's Libya.


Osama bin Laden worked for the Jewish Russian Mafia.

1. The newspaper Scotland on Sunday reported, 16/9/ 2001, that Osama bin Laden made his fortune in part by working with Jewish-Russian mafia operations in Qatar and Cyprus.

Osama is from a billionaire family which has close ties to the Bush family and the Saudi royal family. (aangirfan: The bin Laden Family)

According to Wayne Madsen, "The Bin Laden drug network ... intersects with Geneva-based financial entities established by George H. W. Bush while he was CIA director and Vice President and President of the United States." (aangirfan: Bush, Bin Laden, Drugs....)

2. During the Yeltsin era, the Russian government allegedly allowed certain Jewish gangsters to steal a lot of the countries wealth.

"The fact is that Yeltsin was a hired tool whose job it was to turn Russia's wealth over to the same cartel of Jewish racketeers who controlled Clinton." (Digg - Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin dies)


After Friedman's book was published, Russian Jewish Mafia leaders put a bounty on his head.

3. "The Russian Mafiya is into everything from Wall Street to African diamonds... It has compromised governments and threatens the integrity of world banking."

"Sometime in the '90s, the number of Russian mobsters in New York surpassed the head count of all five (Italian) famiglias combined." (Salon.com Books "Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded ...)


"If Marc Mukasey, the Attorney General's son, can be the lawyer for Madoff's top executive Frank DiPascali via his firm Bracewell & Giuliani in New York, and if Madoff turns out as laundering for the Russian mob and drug cartels, then how in the world could Marc have avoided turning them in?" (Euddoggwyn's World: MADOFF AND THE RUSSIAN MAFIA?)

4. Bernie Madoff made $50 billion disappear.

Madoff may have links to the Mafia. (Was Bernie Madoff a Mafia Front? - Jon Taplin's Blog)


Giuliani

5. Michael Collins Piper, at American Free Press, December 2007, writes about ' rudy giuliani godfather of the russian mob'

According to Piper:

Giuliani closed down the local, mainly Italian-American, mafias.

This allowed certain foreign mafias to take over.

These foreign mafias were mainly Jewish and mainly from Russia and Israel.

Sam Kislin is 'a Ukraine-born and now New York-based patron of Israel'.

Kislin is reportedly linked to high-ranking figures in the 'Russian' mafia.

Kislin raised more than $2 million for Giuliani's intended bid for the Senate in 2000.

The initial base of operations for the Jewish (so-called 'Russian') mafia was the Brighton Beach area in Brooklyn.

Giuliani 'looked the other way'.

Giuliani

Robert I. Friedman wrote in his book Red Mafia that 'one of the leading figures' in the Jewish mafia, Shabtai Kalmanovitch, was also working for Mossad.

Friedman pointed out that 'Russian mafia' figures, such as Joseph Kobson, have links to Likud in Israel.

Friedman wrote: "With two decades of unimpeded growth, the Russian Mafiya has succeeded in turning Israel into its very own 'mini-state,' in which it operates with virtual impunity.

"Although many in international law enforcement believe that Israel is by now so compromised that its future as a nation is imperiled, its government, inexplicably, has done almost nothing to combat the problem."

Website for this image...

Friedman suggested that U.S. law enforcement has done little to counter the 'Russian' mafia.

The reason, Friedman said: "A large part of the problem was political: the Russian mob was predominantly Jewish."

Patrick Cotter, a top Justice Department prosecutor, reportedly said that while the FBI had squads targeting the Italian-American mafias, there was no squad targeting the 'Russian' mafias.

The Russian-Jewish mafia is "protected by the most powerful political force in the United States today: the Jewish lobby, represented by such groups as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith, a documented arm of Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad, as well as the American Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee.

"The mass media, largely controlled by Zionist interests, has also redirected attention away from these elements."


Tokhtakhounov

6. Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov is linked to the Russian Mafia and he is an Israeli citizen, according to reports in the Russian media. (Radio Islam: Mobster linked to Olympics bribe scandal has Israeli)


Rosenstein

7. On 17 November 2008, Yaakov Alperon, an Israeli mobster was assassinated in a car bomb attack.

Alperon's enemies included drug lord Zeev Rosenstein.

Alperon was killed by a bomb explosion in his car at a crowded Tel Aviv intersection. At least three other people were wounded in the attack, including a 13-year-old boy.



8. Sam Zemurray was a Russian Jew who became head of theUnited Fruit Company.

Reportedly, he made his money by keeping in power those dictators who would help keep down workers' wages.

"His 'style' in establishing his own company ... involved bribery and the subsidizing of revolution to overthrow a legitimate government [in Honduras] in order to place someone more favorable to his interests in the executive office." (Langley/Schoonover - The Banana Men. American Mercenaries and Entrepreneurs in Central America, 1880-1930, 1995)

Jean-Paul Votron, of Fortis, Maurice Lippens, of Fortis, Fred Goodwin, former CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and Emilio Botin, of Santander. Maurice Lippens has been linked to the Dutroux Affair and Bilderberg.

9. The executive directors of Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and HBOS earned a combined £122m in pay and cash bonuses over a recent period of 5 years. (what bank chiefs earned before meltdown)

Banks have lots of Jewish executives.

Eric Daniels, chief executive at Lloyds Bank, earned £10 million.

Sir Fred Goodwin, whose mother was Jewish, earned £15 million.

10. According to Mordechai Zalkin, a senior history lecturer in Israel, it was mainly Jewish mafias who, in the period before World War II, controlled the underworld in Warsaw, Vilna, Odessa and certain other large cities in Europe. (World of our (god)fathers,/ the brains behind the sexslave trade)

Reportedly, "Jews could be found at almost all levels of underworld activity, from the individual thief to gangs that numbered more than 100 members."

In his novel, In the Vale of Tears, Mendele Mocher Sforim describes how Jewish mobsters use underhanded methods to kidnap Jewish girls from poor, remote towns and then force them to work as prostitutes. (the brains behind the sexslave trade)


Bugsy Siegel was Jewish

The sources for the following include: jewishtribalreview 'The Sacred Chain - A History of the Jews' by Norman Cantor - Harper Collins, 1995 jewishtribalreview.org/capitalists.

11. "It was the Jews, by and large," says Norman Cantor, "not the Italians, who created what was later called the Mafia.

"In the 1920s the Italians began to replace the Jews in the New York organized crime industry, but as late as 1940 if you wanted a spectacular hit you were looking for a representative of the Lepke Buchalter Gang, also known as Murder Inc.

"Jews were also prominent in the gambling trade and developed Las Vegas in the 1940s. It was a Jewish gambler who fixed the 1919 baseball World Series - what became known as the Black Sox scandal."


Thaçi, prime minister of Kosovo, is alleged to have extensive criminal links.

Marvin Kitman has written: "The Jews were the first ones to realize the link between organized crime an organized politics. They led the way in corrupting the police and city hall."

Reportedly, the Seagram's alcohol fortune (the Canadian Bronfman family) 'grew to power by getting their alcohol into criminal hands who smuggled it into the United States. Bronfman, who bristled when anyone called him a bootlegger, had a distribution deal for his booze with Jewish mobster Meyer Lansky.'


Ben Gurion

David Ben-Gurion was jailed in Warsaw, Poland.

"That was the first time," he said, "that I ever came into contact with the dregs of society. I was shaken to the core at the language and behavior. I never had the slightest notion that such people ever existed ... The thing that shook me most was that these criminals were Jews."

According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, September 15, 1999, "Between 50 and 80 percent of the Russian economyis said to be in Jewish hands, with the influence of the five Jews among the eight individuals commonly referred to as 'oligarchs' particularly conspicuous."


Putin

On 6 September 2010, Russia and Israel signed an agreement on military cooperation.

When we were in Greek Cyprus we noted the presence of a number of Russian millionaires with the most expensive cars you can imagine.

When we were in Italy we also sighted millionaire Russians.

Is Russia a Mafia state and is it close friends with Israel?

It is not just the UK security services which have strong links to Israel (THE CLASSIC SEX SCANDAL), it is also the Russian security services.

The KGB and Mossad used to share their secrets.


Marc Rich is Jewish.

According to Newsmax (Marc Rich Helped KGB Create Hidden Government,), 31 March 2001:

"Marc Rich, the most-wanted fugitive pardoned by former President Clinton, was a key figure in the Communist Party and the KGB's creation of an underground government that survived the break-up of the Soviet Union and still rules Russia today behind the scenes."


Medvedev has Jewish origins?

What are we to make of Russian prime minister Putin and Russian president Medvedev?

Medvedev's "maternal grandfather's first name was Veniamin - similar to the Hebrew Binyamin (Benjamin) - while his family name, Shaposhnikov, is sometimes a Jewish name." (Rumors that Putin's successor is Jewish.)

"Medvedev will be wonderful for the Jews," just as Putin was, declared Israeli-Russian businessman Lev Leviev, who heads the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. (Rumors that Putin's successor is Jewish.)

http://aangirfan.blogspot.nl/2012/12/ma ... mafia.html

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Review of the book "King of Oil".... Interesting story that Iran sent Oil through an Israeli Pipeline.  Of course you are overpaying for Oil by about 60% due to "Big Jew" speculators like Rich and his crew out of Zug, Switzerland. --CSR

--------

   The Secret Lives of Marc Rich – The King of Oil
    Daniel Ammann


Rich with one of his trademarks – a cigar (Keystone)

Nov 14, 2009 - 19:39

Commodity trader Marc Rich admits he's been painted as a "devil", but a new book by a Swiss journalist describes the billionaire as neither saint nor sinner.

Daniel Ammann, who interviewed Rich extensively for his book, The King of Oil, told swissinfo.ch how an oil pipeline through Israel – a joint venture between Iran and Israel - was one of Rich's greatest successes at a time when the two countries were seemingly impossible trading partners.

Rich, aged 74, who lives on the shores of Lake Lucerne, has been a controversial character for years and he wasn't always at the right place at the right time.

He was once accused by the United States of illegal trading with Iran and of tax evasion; for that reason he has never returned to the United States, fearing arrest.

Rich, who brought together business partners who officially didn't want to be associated with each other, was pardoned on the last day of office of US President Bill Clinton, to the surprise and frustration of many.

swissinfo.ch: Daniel Ammann, what is your view of Marc Rich?

D.A.: I think he's a very ambivalent person and as a trader in commodities, you are in a way working in the grey areas of capitalism. He is a very charming person, which surprised me because publically he was painted as the biggest devil and very arrogant and unscrupulous.

I had this image of him and when I met him I was surprised. He speaks very softly and he's very friendly. I was surprised by his charm but at the same time of course he was one of the best traders in the 20th century so he had to be cunning as well.

swissinfo.ch: Is he the greatest tax fraudster of all time?

D.A.: He was to Rudy Giuliani (at the time a US Attorney) who prosecuted Marc Rich, but I actually think that this was more a public relations stunt from Giuliani; I do not think Rich was.

swissinfo.ch: But your book says that he was a bloodsucker of the Third World.

D.A.: I don't say it. It's a Swiss politician who branded him with that. Of course commodities today are found in countries which aren't really beacons of democracy and human rights, so if you choose to trade in commodities it is a very delicate business and you are active in corrupt countries which are exploiting their own people.

On the other hand, it was actually Marc Rich who enabled a lot of African countries to exploit their own resources and to be independent of multinational companies.

swissinfo.ch: What made him so successful?

D.A.: I think actually he was a very, very good trader. He had a nose. He had the knack for discovering trends and at the time he became active independently ... he realised that the world of commodity business was changing from multinational companies towards the governments of countries which wanted to exploit their resources themselves. They had to have independent traders and Marc Rich was one of the early ones, especially when it came to oil, so hence the title [of the book] The King of Oil.

He was always able to bring together impossible business partners such as, for example, Iran and Israel after the fall of the shah and I think this was one of his biggest successes.

The interesting thing in the mid-1970s, just before he became independent, was that Israel and Iran under the shah had a secret pipeline. This was a joint venture which was supplying Israel covertly with oil and it was actually Marc Rich who transported the oil and used the pipeline.

swissinfo.ch: How did he get into trouble?

D.A.: The trouble was in the US. He had the bad luck that he was trying to make money against oil price regulations. And there was this very young and very ambitious Rudy Giuliani who later became the mayor of New York and even a candidate for the presidency. I think Giuliani realised that Marc Rich was a blockbuster case for him and could be good for his own political career.

swissinfo.ch: You say that Switzerland was a "golden cage" for him, safe from any problems with the law.

D.A.: He was actually hunted by the US authorities all over the world. They even tried to kidnap Marc Rich in Switzerland, which was highly illegal according to Swiss law, so he had to be very cautious where he was travelling and that's why I say that Switzerland was a golden cage. He was safe in Switzerland but he had to be extremely cautious where he would fly. He had to avoid, for instance, American air space when he flew to the Caribbean or to South America.

swissinfo.ch: His divorce from Denise was much publicised. Do you think that her financial contribution to the Democratic Party in the US was instrumental in getting Bill Clinton to pardon him on the last day of his presidency?

D.A.: I think Denise Rich was important insofar that she was a friend of Bill Clinton. Of course, if she had a wish or inquiry Bill Clinton would listen to her because she was one of the main sponsors of the Democratic Party. She was important to open the doors but I think the reasons Bill Clinton pardoned are elsewhere. Very important were the Israeli dignitaries who came forward to put in a good word for Marc Rich because he had been very helpful to Israel in supplying oil and in cooperating with the Israel intelligence service Mossad. The second reason is more on a psychological level. I think that Bill Clinton could relate to the story of Marc Rich because Clinton himself felt victimised by aggressive prosecutors after his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

swissinfo.ch: Can you see a reason why Switzerland arrested film director Roman Polanski but not Marc Rich?

D.A.: I think the crime Marc Rich was accused of having committed was not extraditable according to Swiss law, but the more important reason is that the Californian attorney who wanted to have Polanski extradited did everything well. He asked Switzerland for legal cooperation in an official way and he got it, whereas Giuliani didn't care about Swiss sovereignty at all. He even violated Swiss sovereignty and for more than one year he didn't ask for legal cooperation from Switzerland, so Switzerland was not inclined to help Giuliani at all. And I think this is the reason in the end why Switzerland didn't help Giuliani.

Robert Brookes in Zurich, swissinfo.ch

The Secret Lives of Marc Rich – The King of Oil

The book says:

For years Marc Rich covertly supplied strategic amounts of Iranian oil through a secret pipeline in Israel.

Rich financed operations of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, and served as an informal mediator between Iran and Israel.

The US government once sent two US marshals to "kidnap" Rich from Switzerland.

Rich routinely provided the US government with highly sensitive information about key people in Iran, Syria and Russia.

Ex-wife Denise Rich received a total of $365 million (SFr370 million) after an extremely bitter and public divorce case.

Rich's entourage meticulously planned the presidential pardon by Bill Clinton, deliberately bypassing the normal procedures. But Rich says he'll never go back to the US.

Breaking international sanctions, Rich earned a total of $2 billion selling oil to apartheid South Africa.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/ ... id=7657620

Book Review of The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich

Of all the books that I have read so far, this one definitely would go down as one of the best and most inspiring reads ever; it is a tale of success and glory, despair and frustration when the odds are stacked up against you, and how time unravels a lot of issues shrouded in mystery and confusion.

This is the story of a man who once led a life of high stakes and high risks. Who is this man who saw wars and revolutions not as curses but as business opportunities?

Who is the real Marc Rich, the man who managed to elude agents of the most powerful nation on Earth for nearly 20 years? Although he is one of the most important and most controversial commodities traders of the 20th century, only one biography has been written about him, in nearly 25 years, and is now outdated. Perhaps this lack of coverage has something to do with the 1983 criminal proceedings that made Rich into the persona non grata that he is today. More likely, it is because Rich is considered the most secretive trader of the notoriously furtive commodities trading community. For years, no one had ever seen a photograph of him. The media had to resort to artists' sketches for their reports. He systematically avoided reporters. As a result, no one has ever succeeded in getting to know the real Marc Rich, until Daniel Ammann was able to convince him for the first ever one-to-one interview.

This book reveals why Marc Rich thought it was right to do business with Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran, with Fidel Castro's Cuba, or with apartheid South Africa — with corrupt, violent and racist governments. He did business with all these regimes at the height of international UN sanctions being slapped on them. Marc Rich was accused by none other than Rudy Giuliani for the largest tax fraud that the United States ever faced in its corporate history...a case that would lead to Marc Rich's exile for more than 20 years...a case that would paint him as an international thug and villain willing to do business with any regime irrespective of the fact that they would have violated all international norms of human rights. Eventually, Marc Rich was granted a pardon by President Bill Clinton during his last days in the White House.

Besides the human element to this book, here are some of the most interesting facts that the true story of Marc Rich reveals for the very first time:

— For years, Marc Rich – who at one point was the world's biggest and most successful commodities trader – covertly supplied strategic amounts of Iranian oil to Israel through a secret pipeline
—Marc Rich financed the operations of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, and served as an informal mediator between Iran and Israel
— Former mayor of New York and former federal prosecutor, Rudy Giuliani, could have had Rich arrested by the Swiss police, but he let this unique opportunity slip through his fingers
— A young and ambitious United States attorney  for the Southern District of New York Rudy Giuliani accused Marc Rich, then 48, of a total of 51 crimes including tax evasion to the tune of at least $48 million on September 19, 1983
— The American government once sent two US marshals to 'kidnap' Rich from Switzerland
— Rich routinely provided the US government with highly sensitive information about key people in Iran, Syria and Russia
— Busting international sanctions, Rich earned a total profit of $2 billion selling oil to apartheid South Africa
— Ex-wife Denise Rich received a total of $365 million after one of the most bitter public divorce trials
— Rich's entourage meticulously planned the presidential pardon by Bill Clinton, deliberately passing the normal procedures

Marc Rich was born as Marcell David Reich, and was able to escape the holocaust of the Jews in Germany at a very young age. His parents left for Belgium and then the United States, ultimately to settle for a life of freedom and serenity.

The single biggest credit that goes to Marc Rich is the invention of the spot market for oil. The spot market for oil was surely one of the most lucrative ideas of the 20th century. Back when Marc Rich first began to snatch away a part of the global oil trade from the mighty oil corporations, crude oil cost $2 per barrel. In summer 2008, a barrel went for a record $140. Marc Rich's undertaking was revolutionary. His career is tightly woven with great events in world history: Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959; the decolonisation of Africa in the 1960s; the Yom Kippur War and the oil shock of 1974; the fall of the Shah of Persia and the seizure of power by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran in 1979; apartheid South Africa in the 1980s; and the crumbling of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

Since World War II, the global oil market had been dominated by the 'Seven Sisters', the leading multinational oil companies. This cartel of multinational oil companies took its strongest beating from Marc Rich & Co. AG, a small company founded in the Swiss town of Zug in 1974. It is as if a small software company were to suddenly wrestle away Microsoft's market position. In next to no time, Marc Rich and his four business partners managed to achieve what all commodities traders admire and strive for: they created a new market for products that until then had been traded in very small amounts or had not been traded at all. They managed to create an independent distribution system that bypassed the Seven Sisters: the Americans Chevron, Esso (Standard Oil of New Jersey), Gulf, Mobil, Texaco, British Petroleum, and Anglo-Dutch Shell.

In the 1960s, the world of oil was quite different from what it is today. Oil was not traded according to free-market principles, and there was very little latitude for price dynamics. Oil-producing nations sold nearly all of their oil to the Seven Sisters at fixed prices agreed upon far in advance, and only 5 percent of crude oil was traded freely according to the laws of supply and demand. Marc Rich changed all that forever with the invention of the spot market.

Marc Rich was truly the King of Oil. He worked harder and was more aggressive than everybody else and often worked 18 hours a day and Sundays as well. Of course, one can criticise Marc Rich for supplying South Africa's apartheid regime with oil. One can criticise Rich for trading with dictators of every stripe and breaking embargos while putting profit above morality. Yet, Marc Rich did a lot for humanitarian project within Switzerland, Israel and the United States.

Yet, Marc Rich was the typical example of capitalism. Everyone else, the commodities traders most of all, of course, make do with some middle way between a sense of reality and self-deception. They live in a gray area – sometimes dark, sometimes light. Sometimes it is fair and sometimes it is exploitative. The name for this gray area is capitalism.


About the author:
Daniel Ammann, the author of The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich, is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years experience in newspapers, radio and television.

Daniel Ammann was born in 1963, raised in Switzerland and educated at Zurich University, UC Berkeley and Fondation Postuniversitaire Internationale in Paris. He holds an MA in Political Science, History and Constitutional Law.
In 2007, he won the renowned Georg von Holtzbrinck Prize for Business Journalism. In 2006, he was awarded the Swiss Media Prize for Finance Journalism.

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