$4 Million Deal

Maupie 's businesslike release

For five days, he lay on a bed in a "dark den" handcuffed to a radiator and guarded by four men whose faces were covered by ski masks. But Dutch Multimillionaire Maurits ("Maupie") Caransa, 61, who was kidnaped on Oct. 28 outside his club in Amsterdam, remained a shrewd businessman throughout the ordeal. And, as it turned out last week, business--rather than terrorism, as had originally been feared--was the name of the game. By Caransa's account, the kidnapers first demanded a ransom of $16 million. After two days of haggling, Caransa, whose real estate, hotel and other holdings are worth $40 million, wheedled his captors down to $4 million.

When the deal had been set, Caransa sent a note to a law firm, instructing attorneys to arrange for the ransom drop.

The next evening the money was handed over in a cafe located less than 100 yds. from Caransa's office. Then, early the following morning, two of the kidnapers drove Caransa into central Amsterdam and shoved him out of the car. Shivering in the rain, with electrical-wire manacles dangling from his arms and legs, and wearing one patent-leather shoe, the kidnap victim snouted: "I am Caransa, help me, help me!" After hailing a cab, Caransa made his way to police headquarters.

Though several telephone callers had claimed a link between Caransa's kidnaping and the Red Army terrorist group that abducted and murdered West German Industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer, Dutch police continued to investigate the case for the nonpolitical offense that it evidently was. "We are not butchers with political motives," Caransa quoted one captor as saying. "We are criminals and we want a lot of money." They got plenty of that --44 Ibs. of crisp new 1,000-guilder notes, worth about $400 each. What continues to puzzle police is why the kidnapers would demand payment in a denomination of bills that is 1) hard to assemble in large quantities even at banks, and 2) easily traceable (the police have the serial numbers of all the bills). Thus, while the cops regard the ransom payment as a private business transaction, they do not plan to mark the Caransa case closed until those new mysteries are solved.

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