Topic: Marc Rich

Marc Rich (born Marc David Reich on December 18, 1934) is an international commodities trader. He created the spot market for crude oil in the 1970s . He was indicted in the United States on federal charges of illegally making oil deals with Iran during the late 1970s-early 1980s Iran hostage crisis and tax evasion. He was in Switzerland at the time of the indictment and has never returned to the U.S. He subsequently received a presidential pardon from U.S. President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001, Clinton's last day in office.

Rich was born to a Jewish working-class family in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1934. His family immigrated to the United States in 1942 to avoid the Nazis. Rich attended high school at the Rhodes Preparatory School in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. He later attended New York University, in Manhattan, but dropped out after one semester to go work for Philipp Brothers (now Phibro LLC). Rich worked as a commodities trader for his father, who sought to build an American manufacturing fortune through burlap-sack production.

Rich married Denise Eisenberg, a songwriter and an heiress to a New England shoe manufacturing fortune, in 1966. They divorced in 1996; she continues to use the name Denise Rich. They had three children.