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Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law, and Became the World's Most Sought-After Corporate Criminal
Tells the story of Marc Rich, a commodities broker who earned over ten billion dollars in the metals market, was convicted on thirty-eight counts of tax evasion, and fled to Switzerland
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 1, 2018
I found an old copy of this book lying around the office and read it between the Halsted and O'Hare CTA stops. The back cover of the 1985 edition I read--actually, first I want to talk about the front cover. The front of the book may be one of the worst designs I have ever seen and I'm going to break one of my cardinal rules of Goodreads in sharing an image.
The crazy part is that the guy who created the cover owns a design agency and is still designing things, albeit not as badly. The first edition of Less Than Zero also bears his fingerprints, or possibly his footprints. I will never understand the eighties.
Anyway, the back cover makes the claim that the author "actually" posed as a trader, received a job offer for $120,000, which is over a quarter mil in today's dollars, and turned it down to return to journalism. Personally, I would have welcomed the extended detour. Unlike Michael Lewis or other writers who have taken us deep into the world of high finance, Copetas doesn't involve himself at all with the narrative. This makes the claim on the flip side of the jacket quite odd, as, at 222 small pages, it probably could have been squeezed in somewhere.
Metal Men is the story of Marc Rich and his eponymous company that eventually became Glencore, one of the largest trading companies in the world. The author only "met" Rich once despite "penetrating his inner circle." This episode occurred in a restaurant in Zug when Craig Copetas cornered Marc Rich when he was on his way to the bathroom. Rich ended up jumping out the window of the bathroom.
The metal aspect, as we eventually find out, is somewhat of a misnomer. As, though originally specializing in metals, the traders came to speculate in every commoditized product of the earth, from cotton to crude oil. The traders in this book, though, have little in common with the modern notion of a trader. Thirty years ago, the traders at the top of the food chain were largely middlemen, forming relationships with warlords and heads of state and knowing that they could break into the raw materials game wherever they wanted by using powerful friends and unfathomable sums of money.
What happened was that the money and influence eventually became too great. Marc Rich & Co literally didn't have to play by anybody's rules and became a worldwide political risk by supplying weapons to various militant groups and most notably trading with Iran during the hostage crisis. Who cares about firms peddling bundles of subprime mortgages when Marc Rich & Co had the ability to alter human history?
Marc Rich avoided taxes by moving operations to Zug, Switzerland. To this day, Glencore is based in Baar, a nearby town in the same canton. The dance required by companies relocated to tax havens is explained in great detail and never ceases to be interesting. After a while, he was charged with a litany of crimes and, to make a long story short, spent the rest of his life in Switzerland until being pardoned by Bill Clinton on his last day in office in 2001. Hell yeah!
The book is non sequitur and provides a rich history of Rich's family including their persecution by the Nazis. Rich himself is painted as an obsessively private, abrasive person. On one hand, this was the single most important reason that he was so successful for so long, but, thirty years later, it makes this book quite weak. Thankfully, Marc Rich finally opened up and granted an interview for the 2010 book The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich so reading that book will be a much better use of your time.
View this review and others on my blog
The crazy part is that the guy who created the cover owns a design agency and is still designing things, albeit not as badly. The first edition of Less Than Zero also bears his fingerprints, or possibly his footprints. I will never understand the eighties.
Anyway, the back cover makes the claim that the author "actually" posed as a trader, received a job offer for $120,000, which is over a quarter mil in today's dollars, and turned it down to return to journalism. Personally, I would have welcomed the extended detour. Unlike Michael Lewis or other writers who have taken us deep into the world of high finance, Copetas doesn't involve himself at all with the narrative. This makes the claim on the flip side of the jacket quite odd, as, at 222 small pages, it probably could have been squeezed in somewhere.
Metal Men is the story of Marc Rich and his eponymous company that eventually became Glencore, one of the largest trading companies in the world. The author only "met" Rich once despite "penetrating his inner circle." This episode occurred in a restaurant in Zug when Craig Copetas cornered Marc Rich when he was on his way to the bathroom. Rich ended up jumping out the window of the bathroom.
The metal aspect, as we eventually find out, is somewhat of a misnomer. As, though originally specializing in metals, the traders came to speculate in every commoditized product of the earth, from cotton to crude oil. The traders in this book, though, have little in common with the modern notion of a trader. Thirty years ago, the traders at the top of the food chain were largely middlemen, forming relationships with warlords and heads of state and knowing that they could break into the raw materials game wherever they wanted by using powerful friends and unfathomable sums of money.
What happened was that the money and influence eventually became too great. Marc Rich & Co literally didn't have to play by anybody's rules and became a worldwide political risk by supplying weapons to various militant groups and most notably trading with Iran during the hostage crisis. Who cares about firms peddling bundles of subprime mortgages when Marc Rich & Co had the ability to alter human history?
Marc Rich avoided taxes by moving operations to Zug, Switzerland. To this day, Glencore is based in Baar, a nearby town in the same canton. The dance required by companies relocated to tax havens is explained in great detail and never ceases to be interesting. After a while, he was charged with a litany of crimes and, to make a long story short, spent the rest of his life in Switzerland until being pardoned by Bill Clinton on his last day in office in 2001. Hell yeah!
The book is non sequitur and provides a rich history of Rich's family including their persecution by the Nazis. Rich himself is painted as an obsessively private, abrasive person. On one hand, this was the single most important reason that he was so successful for so long, but, thirty years later, it makes this book quite weak. Thankfully, Marc Rich finally opened up and granted an interview for the 2010 book The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich so reading that book will be a much better use of your time.
View this review and others on my blog
January 20, 2021
Metal Men is the story of the rise and fall of the ultimate commodities trader, Marc Rich. When I was working in the ferroalloys & metals division in my first stint in the early part of my career, Marc Rich AG, (by then merged into Glencore) was the Gold Standard of Commodity Trading - we all wanted to be as successful as the traders of Marc Rich but lacked gumption, skill, resources and were in the wrong geography. But things changed dramatically - by the 2000s Glencore was the poster boy of corruption, greed, and everything sleazy associated with commodities trading and high finance - corruption, drugs & call girls, dealing with rogue regimes, tax evasion of a scale unheard of thus far and much more. We felt safer and saner in our boring, low paying jobs!!
This book traces the origins of Marc Rich in Philbros, the formation and sharp rise of Marc Rich's own company with the means described above, the subsequent problems with the long arm of the law, and its demise.
A great read for anyone interested in trading, in metals, minerals & crude. I reread it in anticipation of President Trump pardoning many; like Marc Rich was by President Clinton on his last day.
This book traces the origins of Marc Rich in Philbros, the formation and sharp rise of Marc Rich's own company with the means described above, the subsequent problems with the long arm of the law, and its demise.
A great read for anyone interested in trading, in metals, minerals & crude. I reread it in anticipation of President Trump pardoning many; like Marc Rich was by President Clinton on his last day.
September 3, 2020
Great to learn about Marc Rich from the inside. As someone who knows the trading business, it is incredible to understand what it takes to learn and to establish oneself in the onset. This book discusses the journey and adventures of Marc Rich founder of the modern day Glencore. Also one time owner of 20th Century, founder of the oil spot market, and world power broker.
July 13, 2019
The king of oil - a metal man
Intriguing and exciting read. So much money, so much stress and so much loss. The more you make the more you loose (but what you really loose is good friends and family). Can you live a happy and friendly life ...
Intriguing and exciting read. So much money, so much stress and so much loss. The more you make the more you loose (but what you really loose is good friends and family). Can you live a happy and friendly life ...
April 3, 2022
A little bit too long and lack information integral to the story. But it's a good read to understand how big oil and metal trading is. The people involved are anywhere from military leaders to prime ministers, or presidents of countries.
August 8, 2022
Quite a bit of bombast that's hard to believe almost entirely backed up by anonymous sources. But pretty much a must read if you are interested in learning about Rich and the house he built (Glencore).
August 14, 2022
Not very good. Better books out there on Marc Rich
November 24, 2024
Good read on the origins of Glencore and Rich and Co but not worth the 5 stars. Lots of repetitiveness. Was hoping it would get into more details on the trading practice itself.
Want to read
July 24, 2013Rushdoony praised this as an excellent account of a terrible group of people:
"This deals with one aspect of the commodity market, the metal men. A key aspect and where all kinds of evil is concentrated where, as the author says, “Sportsmanship is never tolerated.”
Now these men also moved into oil. All kinds of strange people are tied up with them very closely. For example, when Mark Rich was finally tried on a whole series of charges, an unbelievable number of offenses for which he was indicted, racketeering, mail and wire fraud, tax evasion, conspiracy, price fixing, possible charges of treason and so on. His very close coworkers and associates included the Soviet Union. Though Pravda wrote articles accusing the US of a witch hunt after a very fine men, one of his partners was Kissinger. Another partner was ambassador Wilson at the Vatican. And the Vatican bank apparently was used and to an extent implicated. An amazing book. And these are men who have been involved on a world scale with every kind of civil government.
When he was arrested, the prosecutor, Sandy Weinberg, a conservative estimate of the amount Rich owed in back taxes, 96 millions. However, they began to feel that the figure might double or triple or quadruple before they were through.
Well, finally Rich settled as the data began to accumulate. He settled on the tax charges. And it is interesting how he settled. Let me quote from page 216.
“It cost Mark Rich 340 million to get off the hook. Not including interest and lost revenues that pushed the real losses close to one billion, he paid 150 million dollars in government fines stemming from the guilty plea, 21 million in fines paid since June 1983 at the rate of 50,000 dollars a day, 780,000 dollars in fines on the charges, 33,00 in court costs and some 10 million in legal fees to his attorneys. The United States had already withheld nearly 37 million in cash of seized Mark Rich assets.
“Mark Rich, AG, also repaid debts of 130 million dollars to 14 creditor banks led by Chase Manhattan and agreed to forfeit the right to use the 150 million dollars payment as a tax liability which could have amounted to some 24 to 40 million dollars in write-offs. {?} Meltzer was handed the suspended three year sentence and was placed on five years probation and so on.
“However, they are still limited to Switzerland and Spain and a few other places. They cannot return to the United States without facing all the other charges. And yet some say that the money did not even dent his business, his wealth or his power.”
It is quite a remarkable book and I commend it to you. It is exceptionally important reading. The importance of this book as a side light into what is happening all over the world in Asia, Africa, behind the Iron Curtain, in the so-called free West, everywhere is a revealing account of where we are, of the cultural decline and degeneracy.
"This deals with one aspect of the commodity market, the metal men. A key aspect and where all kinds of evil is concentrated where, as the author says, “Sportsmanship is never tolerated.”
Now these men also moved into oil. All kinds of strange people are tied up with them very closely. For example, when Mark Rich was finally tried on a whole series of charges, an unbelievable number of offenses for which he was indicted, racketeering, mail and wire fraud, tax evasion, conspiracy, price fixing, possible charges of treason and so on. His very close coworkers and associates included the Soviet Union. Though Pravda wrote articles accusing the US of a witch hunt after a very fine men, one of his partners was Kissinger. Another partner was ambassador Wilson at the Vatican. And the Vatican bank apparently was used and to an extent implicated. An amazing book. And these are men who have been involved on a world scale with every kind of civil government.
When he was arrested, the prosecutor, Sandy Weinberg, a conservative estimate of the amount Rich owed in back taxes, 96 millions. However, they began to feel that the figure might double or triple or quadruple before they were through.
Well, finally Rich settled as the data began to accumulate. He settled on the tax charges. And it is interesting how he settled. Let me quote from page 216.
“It cost Mark Rich 340 million to get off the hook. Not including interest and lost revenues that pushed the real losses close to one billion, he paid 150 million dollars in government fines stemming from the guilty plea, 21 million in fines paid since June 1983 at the rate of 50,000 dollars a day, 780,000 dollars in fines on the charges, 33,00 in court costs and some 10 million in legal fees to his attorneys. The United States had already withheld nearly 37 million in cash of seized Mark Rich assets.
“Mark Rich, AG, also repaid debts of 130 million dollars to 14 creditor banks led by Chase Manhattan and agreed to forfeit the right to use the 150 million dollars payment as a tax liability which could have amounted to some 24 to 40 million dollars in write-offs. {?} Meltzer was handed the suspended three year sentence and was placed on five years probation and so on.
“However, they are still limited to Switzerland and Spain and a few other places. They cannot return to the United States without facing all the other charges. And yet some say that the money did not even dent his business, his wealth or his power.”
It is quite a remarkable book and I commend it to you. It is exceptionally important reading. The importance of this book as a side light into what is happening all over the world in Asia, Africa, behind the Iron Curtain, in the so-called free West, everywhere is a revealing account of where we are, of the cultural decline and degeneracy.
November 21, 2012
Fun to read, but a little sensationalist
July 27, 2013
Not a comprehensive book, but then, it's readable.
May 15, 2015
Insightful
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews