Marc Rich sues trader for £400,000

SECRETIVE financier Marc Rich, who was once on the FBI's list of the top ten most wanted men, has become embroiled in a new legal drama.

Rich, 68, who runs his investment empire from Zug, Switzerland, and was sensationally pardoned by outgoing President Clinton two years ago, is suing one of his former oil traders for more than £400,000 for 'negligence and breach of contract'.

Rich, who stood accused of evading £30 million in tax in addition to 51 charges of fraud and illegal oil trading with Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis, has instructed lawyers to pursue Uwe Schroder, who worked for him between November 1998 and last May.

It is not the first time that Rich has taken legal action against oil traders on his payroll.

Just over two years ago he launched a case against three former employees allegedly involved in a multi-million pound 'secret conspiracy to defraud' him and his empire.

According to papers filed in the High Court, Schroder's duties included 'supervising and administering oil trades' with Limmoil, a Russian organisation based in Cyprus.

The nature of the allegations against Schroder are not detailed and lawyers for Rich declined to comment. Schroder could not be reached at his west London home.

Marc Rich Investment, whose London offices employ about 100 people, is now one of the world's biggest traders of oil and commodities.

Sales are reported to run into billions of pounds a year and frontbench Tory MP Alan Duncan was a former trader with the group.

Duncan has declined to reveal any details of his involvement with the company.

Despite his controversial business career, Rich is a major donor to charities and political causes.

Gifts of millions of pounds to Israel prompted the then prime minister, Ehud Barak, to lobby the US government for his pardon. Rich has also taken citizenship of Israel.

His pardon by Clinton sparked outrage among both Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress. His former wife, Denise Rich, a New York socialite, had coincidentally given $450,000 (£298,000) to the Clinton library and a further $1.2 million (£800,000) to back election campaigns by the Democrats, including Clinton's wife Hillary's bid to join the Senate.

Among numerous other donations, Rich is estimated to have given anything between £100,000 and £1 million to Wadham College, Oxford.