The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich by Daniel Ammann

Author:Daniel Ammann [Ammann, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf, azw3
Publisher: Macmillan

The HUNT for MARC RICH

A

s befitted a man regarded by the United States as a traitor and fugitive, American officials made strenuous and sometimes almost comical efforts over the years to apprehend Marc Rich, ranging from psychological pressure to tricks to lure him away from Switzerland to spying to outright kidnapping. Many of these efforts have never before been revealed.

A shroud of fog covered Lake Zug against the backdrop of beautiful central Switzerland on an October morning in 1985. As is often the case in the fall, the fog would dissolve in the course of the afternoon. Howard Safir traveled to Zug that morning disguised as a tourist. He was accompanied by Chief Inspector Don Ferrarone, a legendary former DEA agent with vast international experience who was involved in the famous “French Connection” heroin case. The two U.S. marshals brought with them detailed maps of Rich’s mansion and business offices as part of the ingenious plan they had devised to capture Rich. They even knew the gradient of the street in Baar. Their reconnaissance had discovered that a helicopter could land on the street, if necessary.

Safir’s plan was to overpower Rich and secretly smuggle him out of the country. It was all to take place without the knowledge of the Swiss authorities and was thoroughly illegal. He wanted to ferry the oil trader to either Germany or France over Switzerland’s “green border”—the national boundary characterized by numerous border crossings that are not subject to constant to constant surveillance by Swiss customs officers. Safir left nothing to chance. Before traveling onward to Switzerland, the U.S. marshal had met with local police in Germany in order to discuss the case. Shortly before departing on his delicate mission, Safir had made sure that the U.S. office of Interpol had sent an arrest warrant for Rich “with a view to extradition” to the Interpol headquarters in Saint-Cloud on the outskirts of Paris.

“WANTED INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL” served as a title for the arrest warrant that had been signed on October 9, 1985, by Richard C. Stiener, then the director of the U.S. office of Interpol. Marc Rich, it said, was “a commodities trader/businessman” who was wanted on charges including “Income Tax Evasion, Racketeering, Trading with the Enemy.” The maximum possible penalty for these charges amounted to “325 years’ imprisonment and/or 100 million forfeiture and/or fines.” Rich’s physical description on the warrant—177.8 cm, 81 kg, black hair, brown eyes—was accompanied by a photograph. It was the only recent photograph of Rich; prosecutors had taken it from a 1984 Forbes article. The warrant described a “slight red mark on left cheek” as one of Rich’s “distinguishing marks.”

The marshals had covered every angle. As soon as Safir crossed the Swiss border with Rich, he could drop his tourist disguise. Rich would have immediately been arrested by any French or German police officer. However, Safir knew that his activities as a U.S. marshal in Switzerland were illegal. Article 271 of the Swiss Penal Code prohibits anyone from undertaking action for a foreign country without Swiss approval.

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