Politics

Marc's Money Trail

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 22, 2001 / 6:43 PM EST / CBS

The charge that Marc Rich or his ex-wife used money to leverage his presidential pardon aren't the first allegations that the fugitive financier tried to buy his way out of criminal prosecution, CBS News has learned.

CBS News Correspondent Phil Jones reports that at least twice, Rich and his business partner Pincus Green have offered cash in hopes of getting the charges against them dropped, according to law enforcement veterans.

Two of the 140 people pardoned in the final hours of the Clinton presidency, Rich and Green had faced prosecution for evading more than $48 million in taxes, for fraud and for illegal oil deals with Iran.

The Rich pardon has come under fire because Rich was still a fugitive at the time of the pardon and Rich's ex-wife Denise Rich had donated substantial sums of money to Democratic party coffers — including Hillary Clinton's senatorial campaign — and President Clinton's library fund.

In addition, Rich's lawyer, Jack Quinn, was a former White House counsel, and the pardon was granted without consultation with prosecutors.

The pardon sparked investigations by two Congressional committees and federal prosecutors and nearly universal expressions of dismay from Democrats. Former President Carter said recently the Rich pardon was disgraceful, given Mrs. Rich's donations.

Mr. Clinton has said the pardon was granted because of flaws in the case against Rich and Rich's "contributions and services to Israeli charitable causes."

Rich and Green, according to former prosecutor Martin Auerbach, have been trying to buy their freedom for years.

"Their willingness to put money on the table to make this go away was extraordinary," he said. "They offered $100 million very early on in the process if we would not proceed with this criminally."

During 1986 negotiations for the exchange of Anatoly Scharansky, imprisoned in Russia for alleged spying, there was talk of even bigger money.

Former New York City police commissioner Howard Safir, then with the U.S. Marshals Service, witnessed the offer — which was legal, but considered extraordinary.

Safir claims that "an attorney who represented the East Berlin folks," Wolfgang Vogel, "made a proffer to a U.S. official at the time that Marc Rich and Pinky Green would pay $250 million if the criminal charges were dropped against them."

Vogel refused to comment, claiming attorney-client relationship with Rich.

Despite the pardon, Rich has "no plans to return" to the United States, one of his lawyers said. The Belgian-born Rich grew up in America but has renounced his U.S. citizenship.

Rich and Green havapparently decided it is still too risky to leave their business, headquartered in Switzerland, and return to the United States.

That despite the sale this week of Rich's Swiss-based commodities operation to a subsidiary of a Russian-owned energy trading group.

While not planning a return to America, Rich — living a billionaire's life in a Swiss mansion with his second wife, Gisela — has told the director of his foundation in Israel that he is "thankful for the pardon."

"It was incredible," said Avner Azulay, director of the Marc Rich Foundation, of Rich's reaction. "He could not utter more than a few sentences after 17 or 18 years of exile, having been … demonized in the media, which (the media) have done again after the pardon."

Auerbach says the pardons have made life much easier for Rich and Green.

"There were bench warrants out for their arrest. There were Interpol warrants out for their arrest," said Auerbach. "So they couldn't travel the world freely despite their enormous wealth. Now they have that ability."

But the pardon fiasco didn’t get any easier for the Clintons Friday. Amid revelations that Sen. Hillary Clinton's brother and a member of her senate campaign staff were paid fees to lobby for pardons granted by the president, the inquiry into the Rich pardon ground forward.

In response to a House committee's subpoena seeking the full list of donors, the Clinton presidential foundation said it would provide only some of the material demanded.

An eight-page letter confirmed that Mrs. Rich made three contributions totaling $450,000 to the library project. But foundation attorney David Kendall also argued that committee chairman Dan Burton's request was "a classic fishing expedition."

Burton, R-Ind., said the foundation's claim was "without merit." He also subpoenaed Skip Rutherford, a longtime friend of the ex-president and the foundation president, to appear at a hearing next week.

A spokesman for Denise Rich, meanwhile, denied a report in the Daily News that the Justice Department had prevented her from attending a wedding in Mexico.