From: palane@iastate.edu (Paul A. Lane)
Subject: Re: Fischer - Spassky: The Prize
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 21:38:44 GMT

In <1992Sep3.182204.17591@midway.uchicago.edu> hau4@ellis.uchicago.edu (sven  hauptfeld) writes:

>Just a little thought:

>We have learned that the prize fund of $5M was offered by a certain Serbian
>"businessman". I don't recall any information on what his "business" is. 

>You should be aware that the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia
>(R.I.P., 1943-1991) was a Communist state, and that the self-proclaimed
>Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e., Serbia and Montenegro) is dominated by
>former Communists, without much change in laws regarding property and 
>business.

>As I lived in the SFRY until graduation from college in 1989, I can testify
>that it was not possible for anyone to make $5M legally (and this gentleman
>must have made a lot more if he can give away that much).

There is a detailed article on the gentleman in the business section of
Tuesday's New York Times. I suggest you read it before speculating.

Like Panic, he spent a great deal of time in the United States and returned
to Yugoslavia relatively recently. He is involved in export/import business
and is believed to be heavily involved in currency dealings, to the point
where he may control a healthy portion of the black market.

The chess match is designed to promote a resort which he is intent on building
which would effectively be a separate country (ncluding low taxes). 

>[For the would-be flamers: I can repeat the above under oath, so don't 
>challenge it unless you can do the same. What follows, however, is just an
>educatewd guess, so whatever you comment on it, there is no need for further
>discussion.]

Please, wait until a flame happens until you start threatening legal action.
And yes, talking about under oath is a specific threat.

>It seems plausible that the money comes from illegal sources. It is quite
>possible that it comes from a pre-war illegal business, but as war is an ideal
>background for making huge illegal profits, it is quite likely that this
>money came from (a) weapons smuggling, (b) trading goods from looted Croatian
>and Bosnian houses, or houses (those not burnt) themselves, (c) managing army
>or irregulars' funds, possibly including the money collected from Bosnians for
>a permission to escape, (d) simply getting an allowance from the government in
>return for some war management services, or (e) any combination of the above.

Read the article. The guy is not lily white, but if you'd bothered doing any
research, you might be taken seriously.

>If any of this turns out to be true, Fischer and Spassky could, in addition
>to obstructing the sanctions, be charged with complicity in money laundering.

>	Sven

Hyperbole of the highest order. Any by the way, given that I have a news
source of impeccable credentials, I'm also quite willing to back my words.

If anyone is interested in details, I'd be glad to scrounge my paper from the
trash and post a summary. It's not that this is a fellow who deserves to be
canonized, but the claims made here seem to be excessive, given that Sven
knows nothing about the fellow.

Paul A. Lane
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess