A single trader, a Holocaust refugee, decided to challenge this cartel. He invented the spot market. He founded a company that today generates US$230 billion in revenue. Then he became a fugitive from the FBI.

This is the story of the greatest commodities trader in history.

You may never have heard of Marc Rich, but the impact of what he created still shapes the world today. Until the 1960s, oil was controlled by 7 giants: Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron, and their predecessors. A cartel that dominated 95% of the global market, with a barrel costing around US$3.

Everything changed in 1971, when Nixon broke the gold standard, the dollar plummeted 40%, and the major producers in the Middle East decided to regain control of the game.

Despite being producers, these countries lacked refinery contacts and sales logistics. That's where Rich comes in, a Holocaust refugee who grew up in the US and was a commodities trader at Philipp Brothers.

Marc Rich changed the game by doing something simple and radical:

He transformed oil into a spot market, traded on demand, with prices determined by supply and demand, not by long-term political contracts. That's how power began to slip from the hands of the Seven Sisters cartel.

In 1974, Rich founded Marc Rich & Co. in Switzerland.

The company didn't produce oil. It connected scarcity and surplus. During the oil shocks:

– it made US$1 billion in its first year – it earned US$28 million in 1974 – it reached US$200 million in annual profit a few years later

All operating away from the spotlight.

After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the US imposed harsh sanctions on Iran. Western oil companies were prohibited from buying Iranian oil.

Marc Rich bought it. Even though he was a billionaire, Jewish, and an American citizen. The oil came at a discount. The risk was already factored in. The spread covered everything.

In 1983, the US government reacted. Marc Rich was indicted on 65 federal charges, including tax evasion and sanctions violations. The prosecutor in the case was Rudy Giuliani, who was also a prosecutor against the Mafia and who years later would become mayor of New York.

Rich lived in Switzerland and was placed on the FBI's most wanted list, where he remained for almost 20 years.

In the 1990s, Marc Rich sold his stake.

Marc Rich & Co. changed its name. Glencore was born. Today, the company operates in dozens of countries, trades oil, metals, and grains, and has a turnover of approximately US$230 billion per year, making it one of the largest trading companies on the planet.

In 2001, on the last day of his term, Bill Clinton granted a presidential pardon to Marc Rich. One of the most controversial acts in recent US history, linked to political donations and international pressure.

Marc Rich ceased to be a fugitive.

He remained a billionaire.

Marc Rich died in 2013.

Few people outside the industry know his name. But he created the modern profession of commodity trader: invisible figures who decide where oil, food, and energy go when politics fails.

That's the power that almost no one sees.

This story shows how commodities are directly linked to the economy, politics, and financial markets.

And in 2026, commodities are expected to continue their strong upward trend, as they did in 2025.