Trivia

At his most successful, Van Rossem owned a yacht, The Destiny,108 Ferraris and two Falcon 900 aircraft. Later everything was sold to pay debts.He also printed false shares.

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 1991, Van Rossem founded his own libertarian protest party ROSSEM, according to many, to gain political immunity, because of his problems with the Belgian Courts. The name of the party stood for 'Radicale Omvormers en Sociale Strijders voor een Eerlijker Maatschappij' ('Radical Inverters and Social Warriors for a Fairer Society'). Under the slogans 'Geen gezwijn, stem libertijn'('No nonsense, vote libertine') & 'Geen gezeik iedereen Rijk' ('No nagging, everybody rich'), ROSSEM got 3.2% of the votes, or 3 seats in the Belgian Federal Parliament in the Parlemential elections of 24 November 1991..

Van Rossem became famous as a stock market guru with 'Moneytron', an investment company that could offer apparently endless returns. His customers included the moneyed of Europe, including the Belgian Royal Family. Van Rossem claimed that the 'Moneytron' was a supercomputer able to predict economic fluctuations, and the access to its room was strictly forbidden, behind a closed door in Van Rossem's office.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He claimed that he had developed a model that could predict the stock market and beat the capitalist system.

He was a Belgian criminal, stock market guru, economist, econometrician, author, philosopher, public figure, politician, and member of the Belgian and Flemish Parliaments.

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

Van Rossem had a seat in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives from November 1991 to May 1995 and the Flemish Parliament from January 1992 to May 1995.

His sympathies for the theories of Karl Marx did not stop him investing for the very wealthy and accumulating 860 million dollars for himself.

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.".