In 1983 Green and his business partner Marc Rich were indicted on charges of tax evasion relating to illegal trading with Iran, including deals that were done while the Ayatollahs were holding Americans hostage in Tehran.

[3] However in 2001 Green and Rich received a controversial presidential pardon from president Bill Clinton which prompted fierce public criticism as well as a bipartisan Congressional investigation.

[6] Both quickly advanced in the company and eventually became top traders in Europe especially in oil trading,[6] Rich in Spain and Green in the Philipps' office in Zug.

It included a variety of serious charges such as evading taxes on more than $100 million in revenues, mail and wire fraud, racketeering and trading with an enemy, Iran, during the Iranian hostage crisis.

"[13] The announcement of the pardon led to an investigation by the US Attorney's Office in New York and the FBI[14] and it also prompted the Congressional House Government Reform Committee to launch a bipartisan investigation, and in May 2002 the committee issued a report which stated: Marc Rich and Pincus Green have a history of illegal and corrupt business dealings contrary to the security interests of the United States.

Rich and Green's crimes were so serious that for seventeen years, the U.S. government devoted considerable resources to apprehending them and closing down their business activities.

Rich and Green were such high-profile fugitives that on a number of occasions in the 1980s and 1990s, the United States Marshals Service attempted to arrest them in various foreign countries.