Commodities Wizard Marc Rich -- RIP

Marc Rich
(Image: money.cnn.com)

Marc Rich, a dynamic figure of change in the often secretive, always ruthless commodities industry, passed away this week in his adopted country, Switzerland. He lived in exile from the United States since 1983, when then-US prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani indicted Rich and his business associate Pinky Green. As Rich's obituary in the Financial Times noted, both of the accused were later pardoned by former President Bill Clinton, at some public relations cost to POTUS #42.

Rich was greatly respected by his business peers, and those he mentored. Among them was Ivan Glasenberg, the current boss at Glencore. In a commercial world where praise is seldom uttered with sincerity, the level of CEO personalities and the tenor of their admiration was most striking.

Perhaps Rich's most generous endeavors were on behalf of Israel. The commodities wiz never forgot he and his family fled Europe and emigrated to the United States during the height of the Nazi plague. He donated plenty of money to Israel and causes associated with the Jewish state. It's fitting he'll be buried in Tel Aviv, a man with an Israeli passport, as well as those of two other nations, neither of which is the United States.