Well yes, money to be sure. I was speculating a larger more political reason, but perhaps it's simply all about money.
Ehud Barak, then Prime Minister of Israel, intervened on Rich’s behalf by calling Clinton twice. Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Council, pled for the Presidential pardon in a letter written on the stationery of the sacred organization he heads. Calls went out to Clinton from Mayor Ehud Olmert of Jerusalem; from Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti Defamation League; and from dozens of other Jewish and Israeli leaders and philanthropists