Taki Taki

That’s Rich

Broadsides from the pirate captain of the Jet Set

New York

Lest there be some of you that missed it, a lifelong dirty dealer is walking around us free as a bird, and there’s nothing any of us who don’t flout the law can do about it. Let’s start the new year right and not be beastly to Mr Marc Rich. He is the man who was pardoned by Bill Clinton on the last day of the Draft Dodger’s presidency. (Rich was indicted on tax-evasion and other crimes but had fled the United States and was living in Switzerland as a very rich fugitive.) When the Clinton pardon came through, all hell broke loose. It was considered too venal, too corrupt, even for the scandal-scarred presidency of Bill Clinton.

Mind you, Rich’s ex-wife Denise was very close to Clinton, contributing millions to the Democratic party and more millions to the Clinton library. A source swears that the fugitive Rich and his ex-wife dangled a multimillion dollar bribe in front of the Clintons and that it will be used for Hillary’s presidential effort in 2008. Needless to say, there is no evidence. It is, after all, hearsay and rumour.

While all this was going on, Saddam launched his campaign to woo international support through sweetheart oil deals under the UN oil-for-food programme. Who better qualified to help him beat the sanctions than Marc Rich? The New York Post recently alleged that Marc Rich was up to his neck in beating the sanctions — accusations which Marc Rich has not as yet denied as far as I am aware.

Rich’s base is Zug, Switzerland, where he has made himself popular with the denizens by contributing to local charities. Nothing very difficult about that. It is a well-known fact that, when a Swiss is held up at gunpoint and challenged to give up their money or their life, 97 per cent of those challenged need lotsa time to decide.

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