German Lunar Embassy offices raided in fraud
inquiry
Former East German Army Officer declares property deeds are a
novelty, "simply an unusual gift"
LUNAR JOURNAL STAFF
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Holger Czajka, a former
East German Army officer during the Soviet Union's authoritarian
rule, also sold horoscopes, novelty deeds to Mars and Venus, offered
to "re-name prominent stars," and launched a scheme through
which customers could adopt an olive tree. |
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LANDSHUT, GERMANY / 21 JUNE / --
German police have raided a novelty gift company that promises
customers the stars, in the form of land certificates for the Moon
and other heavenly bodies.
The offices of the company, Astrox,
have been raided on suspicion of fraud, prosecutors in the
southern German town of Landshut said. Some customers might believe they
owned 1,000 square meters of the Moon's surface after paying €29
(EUR), a spokesman said.
Holger Czajka, the founder of Astrox,
affiliated with the American-based "Lunar Embassy"
novelty deed company, said the certificates were simply an unusual gift. He was sure the
inquiry would peter out.
Czajka offered lunar deeds under the
"Mondmakler" ("Moon Broker") brand name.
Astrox not only markets personalized
horoscopes, but says it will also re-name prominent stars in the
sky after customers — for a fee. For the truly star-crazed, there are
pieces of paper declaring the holder to be the proprietor of land
on the Moon, Mars or Venus.
The more practical can
"adopt" an olive tree in Spain for one year, and receive
two liters of cooking oil from their "child."
Reports about Czajka, 45, who hung up
his East German army officer uniform to make money out of novelties,
are a mainstay in the German media on slow days when nothing else
is happening. Czajka claims to have bought a large area of the Moon
from American Dennis
Hope, a former bit-part actor, shoe salesman and ventriloquist
who refers to himself as "The Head Cheese."
In 1980, Hope exploited what he
believed to be a "loophole" in US law to register "ownership" of the Moon. His purported claim — predated by another
American claim fourteen years earlier — is not taken
seriously by the United States or any other country, and is
roundly scorned by space law experts. Various online shops, ten of
them in Germany alone, offer "land certificates" for
lunar subdivisions under Hope's scheme, known as "Lunar
Embassy," headquartered near Reno, Nevada.
The Astrox inquiry is another in a
growing list of legal problems involving Lunar Embassy and its
affiliates. Hope's Canadian "ambassador," Lisa Fulkerson
of the former Moonland Registry, became a fugitive after she
failed to make a court appearance in November 2003 when she was
expected to plead guilty to theft and fraud charges involving the
disappearance of more than $600,000 (CAD; about $450,000 US)
in investor funds. She was arrested
in January 2004 in Las Vegas and is currently awaiting
trial.
Hope also filed suit against his own
Netherlands "ambassador" when promised royalty payments
weren't received. The case was thrown out of court when a Dutch
judge decided he had no jurisdiction over the Moon.
Prosecutors in Germany said the
Astrox inquiry began after a fraud complaint from an unidentified
association. They said sales brochures were seized and were being
examined to see if they were legal.
This report was
compiled by Lunar Journal from staff and wire service reports.
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