Bill Koch (businessman)

American businessman and sailor (born 1940)

William Ingraham Koch (/k//oʊ//k/ KOHK; born May 3, 1940) is an American billionaire businessman, sailor, and collector. His boat was the winner of the America's Cup in 1992. Forbes estimated Koch's net worth at $1.8billion in 2019, from oil and other investments.

Koch attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. He graduated with bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering, all from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. David Koch (1940–2019) was his twin brother. His other brothers are Frederick R. Koch (1933–2020) and Charles Koch (born 1935).

Koch worked in his family's company. He and his eldest brother Frederick R. Koch had inherited Koch Industries stock. In 1980, after an unsuccessful attempt to take over the company from Charles, William was fired from the company. In 1983 the stock netted them $800million in a sale to their brothers, Charles and David. Legal disputes against Charles and David lasted some two decades. Bill and his eldest brother, Frederick, sided with J. Howard Marshall III, J. Howard Marshall II's eldest son, against Charles and David at one point, in order to take over the company. In 2001, Koch reached a settlement where he had charged the company was taking oil from federal and Indian land. This settlement ended all litigation between the brothers. CBS News reported that Koch Industries settled for $25million, and Bill received one third of the settlement for bringing the suit. After leaving Koch Industries, he became the founder and president of the Oxbow Group, an energy development holding company based in West Palm Beach, Florida. In 2011, Oxbow donated $750,000 to Restore Our Future, Inc., the "SuperPAC" supporting Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. In October 2016, Charles Middleton brought an IRS whistleblower complaint against Oxbow Carbon LLC for avoidance of taxes involving profits from selling petroleum coke, a residue from oil refining. Koch co chairs the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a group formed to fight the Cape Wind project to build an offshore wind farm of 130 turbines. In 2005, Koch contributed $500,000 in donations to the alliance directly and more than $1million toward lobbyist efforts to defeat the project.

Koch donated "about $5million" to Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. Koch gave $2million to Restore Our Future, a PAC created to support 2012 Republican Party Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In 1994, Koch married Joan Granlund, with whom he had a son, Wyatt. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1995, he filed a lawsuit against his former lover, Catherine de Castelbajac, to evict her from his $2.5million condominium at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston. He said he had allowed her to move in the previous year so she could attend Simmons College, as he seldom used the apartment. When he tried to end the relationship, de Castelbajac refused to move out and claimed he had broken his promises to her. A jury ruled in Koch's favor after a trial that was noted for its disclosure of torrid letters and faxes between the two. In 1996, he had a daughter with his girlfriend Marie Beard. Later that year, he married Angela Gauntt, They divorced in 2000. The Kochs are part time residents of Palm Beach, Florida.