Bates) tried to scare the workmen off by firing warning shots from the former fort. As Bates was a British subject at the time, he was summoned to court in England on firearms charges following the incident. But as the court ruled that the platform (which Bates was now calling "Sealand") was outside British territorial limits, being beyond the then limit of the country's waters, the case could not proceed. In 1975, Bates introduced a constitution for Sealand, followed by a national flag, a national anthem, a currency and passports. 1978 attack and Sealand Rebel Government In August 1978, Alexander Achenbach, who described himself as the Prime Minister of Sealand, hired several German and Dutch mercenaries to lead an attack on Sealand while Bates and his wife were in Austria invited by Achenbach to discuss the sale of Sealand. Achenbach had disagreed with Bates over plans to turn Sealand into a luxury hotel and casino with fellow German and Dutch businessmen. They stormed the platform with speedboats, personal watercrafts and helicopters, and took Bates's son Michael hostage. Michael was able to retake Sealand and capture Achenbach and the mercenaries using weapons stashed on the platform. Achenbach, a German lawyer who held a Sealand passport, was charged with treason against Sealand, and was held unless he paid DM 75,000 (more than US$35,000 or £23,000). Germany then sent a diplomat from its London embassy to Sealand to negotiate for Achenbach's release. Roy Bates relented after several weeks of negotiations and subsequently claimed that the diplomat's visit constituted de facto recognition of Sealand by Germany. Following the former's repatriation, Achenbach and Gernot Pütz proclaimed a government in exile, sometimes known as the Sealand Rebel Government or Sealandic Rebel Government, in Germany. In 1987, the United Kingdom extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles. Sealand now sits in waters internationally recognised as British. Sealand sells "fantasy passports" (as termed by the Council of the European Union), which are not valid for international travel. In 1997, the Bates family revoked all Sealand passports, including those that they themselves had issued over the previous 22 years, due to the realisation that an international money laundering ring had appeared, using the sale of fake Sealand passports to finance drug trafficking and money laundering from Russia and Iraq. The ringleaders of the operation, based in Madrid but with ties to various groups in Germany, including the rebel