Prins Bernhard, toch een man van het volk

[Herman Beun]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Financial Times vandaag:

House of Orange swears it's less in the black
By Ian Bickerton in Amsterdam
Published: June 23 2003 5:00 | Last Updated: June 23 2003 5:00

The Dutch royal family has shed rare light on its true wealth - claiming
to be worth barely a tenth of estimates that had wrongly ranked it among
the richest in the world.


Far from having a fortune reported at up to $2.5bn, Queen Beatrix and
company are good for just $250m (£150m).

The change appeared in this year's Forbes magazine billionaires' issue
in March. But it emerged only at the weekend that the write-down was
sought by 92-year-old Prince Bernhard, the queen's father, who called
Louisa Kroll, Forbes' associate editor, to demand redress.

The magazine's assessment was "ridiculous" he told her, or slightly less
regal words to that effect, protesting that its only real money was
limited to modest shareholdings in Royal Dutch/ Shell, the oil group,
and ABN Amro, the Netherlands' bank.

Puzzled, the magazine asked for proof. A handwritten letter duly
arrived. "Normally when we try to check information with royalty our
calls are never returned. But the prince provided more detail than we
have ever had," Ms Kroll said.

The prince calculated the family's worth at less than $250m, but Forbes
bumped it up by including palaces, antiques and tax-free salaries. "The
information was convincing but we are not going to believe 100 per cent
of what people tell us," Ms Kroll said.

The House of Orange is now in slightly less regal company in the Forbes'
list sandwiched between Yassir Arafat (estimated worth $300m) and Fidel
Castro ($110m).

(http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullSt
ory&c=StoryFT&cid=1054966325239&p=1012571727166, alleen vandaag nog
gratis toegankelijk)

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Herman Beun                       http://www.hermanbeun.info/
Herman.Beun at yucom.be                      Brussel, Vlaanderen
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*representative democracy is a contradiction in 4 year terms*
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