James Giffen

Who is James Giffen?

James H. Giffen is an American businessman and an authority on American-Soviet trade. He is the founder and chairman of Mercator Corporation. He was the prime suspect accused in the $80 million Kazakhgate bribery scandal, which was at one time the largest US investigation ever into an overseas bribery case.

Giffen has had ties to the USSR dating back to the 1970s. After graduating from college, he worked for a subsidiary of Armco Steel, developing a relationship with Armco boss and future US commerce secretary C. William Verity, Jr. During the Cold War, Giffen was instrumental in setting up the multi-company American Trade Consortium to negotiate entry into the Soviet market with representatives of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.