Transcript
Introduction
“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 the summer of 2008, a barrel went for a record $140. Marc Rich's undertaking was revolutionary and highly successful. In the 1970s, Rich and a handful of trusted partners single-handedly managed to break the cartel of Big Oil, a cartel that dominated every aspect of the oil trade from the well to the gas pump. They created the first fully functioning competitive market. They invented the spot market. Thanks to the oil trade, Rich, who came to the United States as a poor Jewish refugee boy, became one of the world's richest and most powerful commodity traders. He advanced to become the undisputed king of oil. The high point of Rich's power was soon followed by his fall from grace, a fall that cost the billionaire his reputation, his wife, and his company.
Marc Rich is not known the world over as a result of his amazing entrepreneurial achievements, which were many. His name does not ring a bell because he was a unique pioneer of globalization, which he was. His name is not bound to the realization of the American dream, even though he rose from a penniless European Holocaust survivor to become one of the richest men in America by the strength of his own will.Despite his fabulous wealth, Rich lost control over his own name. Today, the name Marc Rich means the billionaire trader who fled the United States in 1983 to avoid charges of tax evasion and making illegal oil deals with Iran during their hostage crisis. Who is this man who 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 the agents of the most powerful nation on Earth for nearly 20 years?”