Posted on 08/16/2005 5:35:24 AM PDT by shrinkermd
"...Yet this pastoral playground is the home base of Marc Rich, the former fugitive billionaire commodities trader, who was pardoned by Bill Clinton in his last day as U.S. president in early 2002.
It is also the headquarters of Xstrata PLC, the mining powerhouse which Monday bought 19.9 per cent of Canadian nickel giant Falconbridge Ltd., putting it in position to launch a potential takeover bid for the company.
Xstrata often gets mentioned in the same breath as Mr. Rich. Both are part of the huge trading community drawn to Zug by extremely low taxes, privacy and comfortable surroundings. (Canadian auto parts tycoon Frank Stronach also has a vacation place there...)..."
"...Thirty years ago, Mr., Rich founded Glencore International AG, a secretive trading Goliath also based in Zug. Glencore is now Xstrata's largest shareholder with a 40-per-cent interest in the company and three of its executives sit on the board.
Mr. Rich sold Glencore in the mid-1990s to its senior management group. Glencore, today a private company with annual revenue worth $72-billion (U.S.), says it now has nothing to do with Mr. Rich.
BusinessWeek, in an investigative article last month, described the vast international trading network Mr. Rich helped create in Zug as “The Rich Boys,” and listed Glencore's key managers as “former Rich bigwigs.”
It is understandable that Glencore would be eager to play down its Rich roots. The globe-trotting billionaire is as much a magnet for controversy as for personal wealth — estimated by Forbes last year at $1.1-billion, the 514th largest fortune in the world.
Please pardon my ignorance of geography, but...
WTF is "Zug"?
I certain that the mainstream media will inundate Clinton with inquiries on this oligarch of oil for food, the prince of presidential pardons. /s
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