 Raepple "was regarded by overseas currency and fraud protection services with a marked distaste increased by the fact that in a series of dubious operations no one had been able to fasten a criminal conviction on him".He operated in the Pacific; in July 1986 in the Cooks as a "Californian philanthropist with an interest in low-cost housing", then in Vanuatu offering to raise funds from Middle East sources for a new airport, then a fiasco in Tonga over an unbuilt "Crown Prince Hotel", and talk of setting up an “International Bank of the South Pacific”.Lange suggested in Parliament that Raepple was the same man as one Werner Rohrich, who did have a police record.