Jean-Pierre Van Rossem

Jean-Pierre Van Rossem was born on May 26, 1945 in Brugge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

At the coronation ceremony of King Albert II of Belgium, he shouted 'Vive la république d'Europe, vive Lahaut', as a reference to Julien Lahaut, who had shouted 'Vive la république' in 1950 at the coronation of Baudouin of Belgium. Van Rossem was against the Belgian monarchy.

Van Rossem studied economics at the University of Gent in 1963-67. With his final term paper 'De omloopsnelheid van het geld : theoretische begripsbenadering en praktische toepassing in België' ('The velocity of money: Theoretical approach to understanding and practical applications in Belgium') he won the International Scholarship of Flanders-prize and was able to study two years of econometrics under Nobel Prize winner Lawrence Klein at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Van Rossem claimed to have met Osama Bin Laden in 1988 at the "Baharain Middle East Bank" in Saudi Arabia.

Van Rossem sponsored a Formula One team in 1989, Moneytron Onyx, which placed 10th of the 21 teams. The biggest success he got with his team was 3rd place at the Grand Prix of Portugal with driver Stefan Johansson in 1989.

He was an actor, known for Wie ben ik (1990), Big Brother VIPS (2001) and Klasgenoten (1989).

In 1991, he was sentenced to five years in prison for his scams; according to him, it was "a way to fuck the system." In prison, he wrote a personal diary, Gevangenisboek (English: Prison Book), which was later published.

In 2002 the Extreme Right Politician Wim Verreycken compared Rossem, along with the murder of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, as political stunts during a meeting of the Belgian Senate.

In 2004 Van Rossem was a guest on the Dutch television show Het Grote Complot - De Wereld Verklaard and offended the Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende by calling him a "dick.".