Will No One Have Sympathy for a Fallen Middleman?

Readers of O and G know that Dutch oil trader John Deuss has led a largely charmed life. He earned hundreds of millions of dollars as one of the world's premier oil traders in the 1970s and 1980s. He went into oil drilling in the U.S. and Nigeria. And, in terms of the Caspian, he was in the middle of one of the era's high-tension geopolitical gambits, tying up Chevron for a couple of years in the construction of a big oil pipeline from Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield. To get him out, Chevron had to muster the combined weight of the U.S. government, the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Still, it required the death of his chief patron in the Sultanate of Oman before he finally threw in the towel, and went on to new adventures. Here he's pictured in the 1970s, when he ran his own magazine, called Chief Executive.

But the jet-setting life seems over for Deuss, who for almost two years has been embroiled in legal trouble in the Netherlands and the U.K. in an investigation of his banking activities in Bermuda and Curacao. I'm told he's not living the high-life any longer. And a court in Bermuda recently rejected his latest effort to clean up his name.

One problem is that he can't seem to cash out of the accouterments of big wealth. His 187-foot sailing yacht Fleurtje, on which he wined and dined western oilmen during the Caspian era, has been on sale for about $14 million since late 2006. No buyers.

He's had no better luck in the sale of Windsome Farms, his uber-luxurious, 123-acre estate and champion horse-raising facility in Wellington, Florida. One O and G reader tells me it's going for $62 million. But an ad says Deuss wants $49 million. Whatever the case, you must take a peek at the photos in the link. It looks pretty relaxing (as does the yacht). Here's a map of its location.

Perhaps one of the Caspian's nouveaux riche is looking for a ready-made throne?