Jean-Pierre Van Rossem

Jean Pierre Van Rossem
Born	(1945-05-29) 29 May 1945 Bruges, Belgium
Nationality	Belgium
Occupation	politician, entrepreneur, writer

Jean Pierre Van Rossem (born 29 May 1945) is a Belgian scholar, socialite and writer.

He studied economics at the University of Gent in 1963-1967. With his final term paper he won the International Scholarship of Flanders-prize and was able to study two years of econometrics at Lawrence Klein. He became famous with 'Moneytron', a stockmarket investment company that could offer apparently endless returns. The Moneytron was supposed to be a super computer able to predict economic fluctuations, and the access to its room was strictly forbidden, behind a closed door in Van Rossem's office. When he was imprisoned, a Belgian TV-team interviewed a cleaning lady about this famous room, she answered it was just the broom closet.

Van Rossem had developed a model that could predict the stock market and beat the capitalist system. His sympathies for the theories of Karl Marx did not stop him investing for the very wealthy in the world and accumulating 800 million dollars for himself. He declares himself an "anarchist".

Due to belief in the Moneytron system and also his sense of show and publicity he made large sums of money. He also traded duplicated stocks, according to him, 'A way to fuck the system'. He was the sponsor of a Formula One team in 1989, Moneytron Onyx, which placed 10th of the 21 teams.

The revenue service and the court were not blind to his methods. He created the political party ROSSEM to avoid lawsuit (elected politicians are not liable in court) and he got three seats in the lower house at the elections of 1991.

At the coronation ceremony of king Albert II of Belgium, he shouted 'Vive la république' (Belgium is a monarchy) as had done Julien Lahaut in 1950 at the coronation of Baudouin of Belgium.

In 1991 he was sentenced to 5 years in jail for tax evasion.^[1]

Then, he began to write his autobiography, which became a bestseller. Rumour was that had a fling with Miss Belgium Brigitta Callens, although this was strongly denied by Van Rossem himself. He married Nicole Annys, who died in 1989. Later he married Rachida Bettar, with whom he had a son.

Currently, he is back at his old job of helping college students in Gent, his slogan is: 'Party on, I'll pull you through!'

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