Dear Aprokonation, lets continue with the expose from Part 1. Today, we proceed with: Fugitive, Felon, and the Presidential Pardon
In 1983, while living in Switzerland, Rich was indicted in the United States on 65 counts of fraud, racketeering, and violating the Trading with the Enemy Act. Specifically, Rich was indicted for evading more than $48 million in taxes and was charged with 51 counts of tax fraud, as well as running illegal oil deals with Iran during the 1979-1980 hostage crisis. The charges could have drawn a prison sentence of more than 300 years.
Federal prosecutors said Rich rigged an oil pricing scheme during the 1973 energy crisis and illegally sold oil to Iran while that country held American hostages. During his prosecution, U.S. authorities uncovered efforts by Rich and Green to ship subpoenaed documents out of the country in steamer trunks, a plan which was thwarted by law enforcement after a tip allowed them to stop the airplane with the documents on it before it took off.
Rich fled to Switzerland during his prosecution and resided there as a fugitive for nearly two decades. He was on the FBI's Most Wanted list, living in gilded exile. The Justice Department had Rich listed as an international fugitive wanted by the FBI. Then-U.S. attorney Rudy Giuliani prosecuted Rich in what would become one of the most controversial white-collar criminal cases in American history.
On January 20, 2001, hours before leaving office, U.S. President Bill Clinton granted Rich a controversial presidential pardon. Clinton issued 140 pardons as well as several commutations on his last day of office, nearly a third of his total pardons during his entire presidency. This was ridiculed as 'Pardongate', but the Rich pardon stood out as particularly outrageous.
The pardon sparked immediate outrage and investigation. Clinton's critics alleged that Rich's pardon had been bought, as Denise Rich, Marc's ex-wife, had given more than $1 million to Clinton's political party (the Democratic Party). Specifically, she donated more than $100,000 to the Senate campaign of the president's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and $450,000 to the Clinton Library foundation during Clinton's time in office. Between 1993 and 2001, Denise Rich donated nearly $1.4 million in various political contributions to Democrats. Clinton also cited clemency pleas he had received from Israeli government officials, including then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Rich had made substantial donations to Israeli charitable foundations over the years, and many senior Israeli officials, such as Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert, argued on his behalf behind the scenes. Many leading figures of the Jewish world, such as Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), whose organization had received over $250,000 from Rich over the years, also wrote to President Clinton for Rich's pardon.
Rich reluctantly acknowledged in interviews with his biographer that he had assisted the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. According to Ammann, Rich had helped finance the Mossad's operations and had supplied Israel with strategic amounts of Iranian oil through a secret oil pipeline. Avner Azulay, a former high-ranking Mossad agent and executive director of two of Rich's philanthropic foundations in Israel since 1993, played a central role in coordinating the pardon effort. The Backlash and Investigations
The pardon triggered unprecedented congressional hearings and federal investigations. A Gallup poll from February 19-21, 2001, revealed that 62% of respondents disapproved of the Rich pardon, with only 28% approving, reflecting a sharp drop in Clinton's favorability ratings. Congressional investigations were launched by multiple committees. The House Committee on Government Reform held extensive hearings on the pardon. As Senator Arlen Specter stated in opening the hearings: 'Marc Rich and Pincus Green were indicted in the largest tax evasion case in U.S. history.... These gifts and donations raise obvious questions and they deserve an answer.'
Clinton's top advisors, Chief of Staff John Podesta, White House Counsel Beth Nolan, and advisor Bruce Lindsey, testified that nearly all of the White House staff advising the president on the pardon request had urged Clinton not to grant Rich a pardon. Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was assigned to investigate whether the pardon itself was the product of criminal bribery. She was later replaced by Republican James Comey, who found no illegality on Clinton's part, though the investigation closed in 2005 without charges. Several of Clinton's strongest supporters distanced themselves from the decision. Former President Jimmy Carter, a fellow Democrat, said: 'I don't think there is any doubt that some of the factors in his pardon were attributable to his large gifts.' The 'New York Times' called it 'indefensible.' The 'Washington Post' labelled it 'scandalous.'
Under U.S. law, a presidential pardon is 'plenary'—once signed and delivered, it cannot be legally revoked to put the person back in jail for those specific crimes. While President George W. Bush famously revoked his own 24-hour pardon of Isaac Toussie in 2008 before it was delivered, he couldn't touch Rich's status. As a condition of the pardon, it was made clear that Rich would drop all procedural defenses against any civil actions brought against him by the United States upon his return there. Rich never returned to the United States. He died in Switzerland on June 26, 2013, at the age of 78, a billionaire who died in exile, never again allowed to set foot on American soil.
You might be wondering how all this plenty story relates to Nigeria, well, we will get there soon. My next post will introduce the Abacha angle. Stay tuned.