The King of Oil by Daniel Ammann

The King of Oil by Daniel Ammann

Billionaire oil trader Marc Rich for the first time talks at length about his private life (including his expensive divorce from wife Denise); his invention of the spot oil market which made his fortune and changed the world economy; his lucrative and unpublicized dealings with Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran, Fidel Castro's Cuba, war-ravaged Angola, and apartheid South Africa; his quiet cooperation with the Israeli and U.S. governments (even after he was indicted for tax fraud by Rudy Guiliani) and near-comical attempts by U.S. officials to kidnap him illegally.

This sure-to-make-headlines book is the first no-holds-barred biography of Rich, who was famously pardoned by Bill Clinton, and resurfaced in the news during the confirmation hearings of Attorney General Eric Holder. The King of Oil sheds stunning new light on one of the most controversial international businessmen of all time, charting Rich's rise from the Holocaust, which he fled as a young boy, to become the wealthiest and most powerful oil and commodities trader of the century. From his earliest trading days to the present, Marc Rich's story is astonishing and compelling.

Daniel Ammann is the business editor of Die Weltwoche, a prestigious Swiss weekly. He received his education in Zurich University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Foundation Postuniversitaire Internationale in Paris. He was awarded the Georg von Holtzbrinck Prize for Business Journalism in 2007, as well as the Swiss Media Award for Financial Journalism in 2006. He is the author of The King of Oil: Marc Rich's Hidden Lives.