MONDAY MARCH 26 2001 Fugitive billionaire's $2m cash seized at Gatwick BY STEWART TENDLER, CRIME CORRESPONDENT CUSTOMS officers have seized nearly $2 million (£1.4 million) in cash after it was flown into Britain on behalf of Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire pardoned by Bill Clinton. Mr Rich, whose presidential pardon is under investigation by the FBI, now has to prove that the cash was honestly acquired, or he could lose it. Investigators are holding the cash under powers aimed at preventing drug traffickers moving their profits from country to country.

The cash was found by customs officers this month when a courier for a British security company flew into Gatwick Airport from Europe. The company and courier were hired to transport a high-security package in a case and were un-aware it contained cash. The courier was stopped by customs officers and the case was searched. Officers seized the $1.9 million under legislation covering suspected cash from drug trafficking.

The legislation allows customs officers to hold sums of £10,000 or more from travellers. They act if they have reasonable grounds to suspect the money is directly or indirectly linked to drug trafficking or will be used for further drug trafficking.

The cash can be held for 48 hours, and if customs officers are still not satisfied that the money is legitimate a magistrate can give them powers to hold it for up to three months.

Customs investigators are understood to have been given permission by a magistrates’ court to continue to hold Mr Rich’s cash. If Mr Rich can show the source and the purpose of the cash is legitimate, customs officers will have to hand it back to him.

Yesterday a spokesman for Customs and Excise said: “We cannot discuss individual cases of cash seizures.” The spokesman added that no one of Mr Rich’s name had been charged with any offence.

Mr Rich has a company in London called Marc Rich Investment Ltd in Redan Place, Bayswater, West London. Yesterday a senior member of staff said that he was unaware of the seizure and referred any queries to senior executives in Zug in Switzerland, which is the home of Mr Rich’s private company.

Mr Rich is based in Zug in a closely guarded home. For the past 17 years he has been facing 65 charges that include racketeering, evading $48 million in taxes and trading with Iran during the US Embassy hostages crisis in the early 1980s. In January he and his partner, Pincus Greene, were pardoned in one of the last acts of the Clinton presidency. The move caused outrage, although Mr Rich praised it as “humanitarian”.

Mr Rich’s former wife, Denise, a socialite and songwriter, contributed more than $1 million to Democratic Party funds, and the circumstances of the pardon are now under investigation. Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Prime Minister, had also interceded on Mr Rich’s behalf.

Once described as “a beautifully sinister executive who could frame deals with the artistry of a pool shark”. Mr Rich, 66, was born in Belgium and is said to have amassed more than £1 billion. He is reputed to have traded commodities with “rogue” countries, often led by leaders few others would deal with. He was accused of illegal dealing with Iran under Ayatollah Khomenei and also dealt with Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Cuba.

In 1983 he fled to Switzerland from his $10 million flat in New York and renounced his American citizenship just before he was indicted for tax evasion, fraud and other charges. He took out Spanish and Israeli citizenship. ~ ~ ~ ~ A million here, a million there. . .pretty soon, it adds up to real money!

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-- Anonymous, March 25, 2001

Answers

KLINTOON probably wired him and told him to send his bribe money to him now.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2001