Van Rossem, Jean-Pierre

Youth

Jean-Pierre van Rossem studied at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Ghent . He won first prize at the prestigious, Flemish competition "Internationale Jaarbeurs van Vlaanderen" with the thesis "Speed ​​of rotation of money." Thanks to this thesis, van Rossem was able to enter the University of Pennsylvania , where Lawrence Klein , a Nobel laureate in economics , taught econometrics . During that period, he opened his first tutoring bureau for students, named “Metodika”. In his student years, he already had left-wing political views and was especially interested in the ideas of Karl Marx , although later he needed to know that the Marxist system was not successful. He experimented with drugs and said himself that he had taken heroin with friends in the center of Ghent .

Extravagant period

In the 1980s, van Rossem founded the company Moneytron, with which he played on the stock exchange and made big profits. He claimed that he created a system through which he could predict the exchange rate and many wealthy people entrusted large sums of money to van Rossem. Then it turned out that he transferred the money to his own account.

Despite his Marxist beliefs, van Rossem himself created capital, which amounted to 891 million dollars. He felt very good when he was in the spotlight and received more and more money. None of the investors knew what van Rossem was doing with money, then it turned out that this money disappeared in Swiss accounts and went to criminal cases.

In 1989, he was the owner of a Formula 1 team, Onyx Grand Prix , which ranked 10th out of 21 teams. He married Nicole Anneys in 1989, but she died that same year. Van Rossem thought she was killed and kept her body in the freezer until a way was found to do an autopsy. Two years later he went to prison and during that period there was a short circuit in the motor of the freezer. Therefore, the body was removed. Anneis was the mother of Van Rossem's eldest son.

He remarried and married Rashida Bettar, from whom he had a son. The couple lived together for 20 years, but they divorced in 2008. Then Van Rossem lived for 6 years with a Russian woman Lyudmila Zaikina. Earlier, in 2004, he wrote and directed the vaudeville, “God is dood, 't is godgeklaagd,” in which he himself participated. The play was unsuccessful.

In prison

In 1971, Jean-Pierre van Rossem was sentenced to one year probation for falsifying documents and because he gave uncovered checks. In 1973, he was first sentenced to 4 years for forgery. In 1991, he was sentenced to five years, but was already released after one year of imprisonment.

After imprisonment, he joined the group of “famous Flemings” and lived with Miss Belgium, Brigitte Cullens. But van Rossem denies this and says it's gossip. At that moment, he was making money thanks to the phenomenon on TV. He also dealt with the club's public relations and wrote articles on motorsport.

Calm

In 2005, Van Rossem again started a tutoring office in Ghent , where he worked as a tutor. He specialized in teaching students at the Faculty of Economics , Law , and Philosophy . Since 2007, Van Rossem no longer refuses the media .

Van Rossem had Marxist convictions and liberal ideas: he himself said that he was a libertarian and anarchist . The most important point of libertarianism and anarchism is individual freedom. He founded the libertarian ROSSEM party in 1991, which won 4 seats in the elections of that year: 3 in the House of Representatives and 1 in the Senate . At that moment, he could not take a seat in parliament because he was in prison. Only in 1992 did he finally take his place. The name of the backronym is Radicale Omvormers en Sociale Strijders voor een Eerlijker Maatschappij, which means radical reformers and social fighters for a more just society. Following the example of Julien Liao , who in 1950 violated the coronation of Baudouin (king of Belgium) , van Rossem shouted the republican slogan ('Vive la République d'Europe! Vive Lahaut!') In 1993 at the coronation of Albert II . On March 26, 2009, Van Rossem announced in the Phara political program that his party would run in the 2011 elections. This project failed because the 2011 elections were accelerated. In 2012, he again wanted to look for people for his party. The party did not participate in the 2014 elections and no longer exists.

• Due to its extravagant appearance, comic draftsmen love to draw it in their comics. Eric Meinen painted two comics in which Van Rossem played a major role. He even appeared in several albums of the Flemish comic strip Nero.
• In 2005, he took 154th place on the Flemish election list De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian).
• He wanted to write 365 novels so people could read his book every day.
• Karl is the middle name of his son Nicky in honor of Karl Marx.

site about the life of van Rossem