In the 1980s, Jürgen Hass was a well-respected member of society. He worked as an insurance salesman in the town of Rees near the Dutch border and was involved in local politics as a member of the free-market, liberal Free Democratic Party.

Then, in 1987, Hass was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud. But he insisted that he was innocent and eventually moved to Paraguay. Hass, whose name means "hatred" in German, took with him a built-up anger against the German state. Now he seems to have figured out a way to take "personal, private revenge," as he put it according to German magazine Der Spiegel.

Hass has decided to take advantage of a loophole in Germany's legal system that allows men to recognize children as their own as long as the mother agrees and no other man claims paternity. The 56-year-old has told the magazine that he's already recognized about 300 children from Paraguay, Romania, Hungary, Moldavia, Russia, Ukraine and India.

He plans to add another 700 by the end of the year, saying that he wants his "children" to benefit from Germany's social welfare system as they become German citizens. Apparently Hass is not going to face financial difficulties because of it since he claims that his pension cannot be touched to cover alimony payments.

He'll have to hurry, however: German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries has already introduced a bill that would make such "fake paternities" illegal.