Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law, and Became the World's Most Sought-After Corporate Criminal [Paperback]

A. Craig Copetas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1986

Marc Rich -- the most wanted white-collar criminal in America -- was one of the most successful metal traders in the world. Before there was Michael Milken or Ivan Boesky, Rich rose through the ranks to amass a multibillion dollar fortune in the halcyon days of high-flying commodities trading. But he did it by cutting corners and pulling the wool over the eyes of his competitors. Eventually his companies pleaded guilty to 38 counts of tax evasion, paying $90 million in fines. Rich fled to Switzerland, where he faced a potential jail term of over 300 years if he ever returned to the United States. This is a story of greed, corruption, and money gone wild, in truly astronomical proportions. Posing as a commodities trader, A. Craig Copetas goes behind the scenes to give us a riveting, true-to-life portrait of Rich's corrupt world and his incredible escape from the law.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Marc Rich is one of the most successful traders of metals and other minerals. He is also now living in Switzerland, wanted in the United States for tax evasion. While Copetas's book is ostensibly about Rich and his questionable dealings, it also gives a fairly interesting account of the metals trading industry itself: individualistic, barely regulated, tense, fast-paced, potentially lucrative, and often shady. The character and atmosphere of Phillip Brothers, the trading house where Rich got his start, and of Rich's own firm are nicely contrasted and delineated. Neither Rich nor the metal trading industry come off very well. For larger business collections. Stuart Gudowitz, George Washington Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Reads like a mystery novel [and] provides a fascinating look behind the scenes of the commodities trading snake pit." -- -- USA Today

"The story itself is astonishing -- and appalling." -- -- John Train, Wall Street Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (October 8, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006097060X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060970604
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One Quick Look Into The World Few Know About But The Brave!, January 30, 2001

By 

Joseph J. Janos III (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law, and Became the World's Most Sought-After Corporate Criminal (Paperback)

This is without a doubt one of the finest books I have read from start to finish. Although the author did work in the business for a time being to research his subject, the world is bigger than any one person. Yet, the author came closer and reported more than ever before.

It begins about the origins of metal trading and goes directly to writing about the people who learned it, changed it and became successful than any other's dreams in the persona of, Marc Rich And Pincus Green. It will explain how commodities works, trading in them is accomplished and the ability to go from Mail Rooms to Board Rooms because of hard work, smarts and guile to do it.

The book explains how oil was once controlled by the "Seven Sisters Oil Companies (Exxon, Mobil, BP, Shell, Gulf, Chevron and Texaco), who have since merged among themselves. Everything about the product from ground to shipping to refining to market was dominated by them until Marc Rich and Pinky Green. This is just a portion of what the book is about with facts too real for fiction. Mr. Rich and Green built over a 30 billion dollar business in over 125 countries and is the true multi-national that the world have come to know today.

What few will ever know is all of the quiet services performed by these men both in helping others, creating opportunity and in some cases keeping the world safe for democracy and national security. At the same time, powerful business men who once dominated this area do not take kindly to those who changed it to their benefit and others losses.

As you read the book it is so easy to condemn Marc Rich and Pinky Green yet you cannot help to admire how they felt that they and only they would control their destiny. It is far harder to praise them when much of their work, donations and efforts were kept silent out of need, respect and charity. In any event, this book will open the eyes to those who read it carefully. It could be made into a movie far better than "Barbarians At The Gates" ever was in reality. I highly recommend this book if you can get your hands on it!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greed and revenge, June 16, 2004

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law, and Became the World's Most Sought-After Corporate Criminal (Paperback)

A. Craig Copetas' book gives us a rare insight in the well curtained offices of big metal traders. His story centres on Marc Rich and his companion Pincus Green, who left in disgust their employer Philipp Brothers, at that moment a unit of Engelhard MC, because of the 'meagre' bonuses they received at the end of the year. These bonuses were in fact only a fraction of the revenues the two traders generated for the company.
The new company they created attacked immediately and head-on the core businesses of their former employer.
Craig Copetas shows us how Marc Rich's commodity trading business was based on 'deep' contacts (Henry Kissinger), market cornering, tax evasion, and profiting most of all by circumventing a US oil embargo against Iran.
Attacked in court for unlawful trading and tax evasion Marc Rich's companies pleaded guilty to 38 counts to the tune of ninety million dollars, still a small portion of the amassed fortune. Fines of $50,000 a day were disbursed without the slightest difficulty.
When he was finally condemned, Marc Rich had already settled down in Zug (Switzerland) with a Spanish identity card.
He was ultimately pardoned (he risked a potential jail term of over three hundred years!) by President Bill Clinton (for generously supporting the Democratic Party?).
This book is a keen look behind the curtain of a highly speculative and risky business, where the best informed traders corner the least informed ones. Options should limit the risks.
For interested readers and traders alike.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read..but you must decide what is real and what isn't, January 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law, and Became the World's Most Sought-After Corporate Criminal (Paperback)

The commodity trading profession has very few books written about it. This is one of the better books but you must decipher what the truth is and what is fictitious. Copetas speculates alot about the life of Marc Rich and takes alot of pot shots at his career. Truth is Copetas is an outsider and outsiders can not accurately report about covert and clandestine physical commodity trades. I should know....I worked for the best metal man in the world.