He brings to the wheeling-and-dealing game an air of mystery and a hint of the renegade. He is legendary within the ultra-high-stakes world of oil traders.

And some say there is a burn scar on his face, possibly the result of a attempt on his life.

Welcome to the intriguing world of billionaire Bermuda resident and oil trader Mr. John Deuss ... as portrayed in an April 17 article of the magazine Newsweek .

The article headed "Carpetbaggers of Kazakhstan'' spotlights the big players in politics and oil in Central Asia.

And as president of the Bermuda-registered Oman Oil Company Ltd., and a director of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Mr. Deuss certainly fits the bill.

Recently, Mr. Deuss took a big step in moving oil from western Kazahkstan to the west -- without oil giant Chevron -- when it was announced CPC had agreed to start construction of pipeline which will increase exports from the former Soviet Union.

Newsweek described Mr. Deuss as "the most successful of all the West's fortune-hunters in the former Soviet Union.'' "From South Africa to the North Sea, his career has been dogged by controversy.

"He is a former car dealer from Nijmegen in the Netherlands who now heads a petroleum company in Oman, raises horses on a farm in Connecticut and bases his operations in Bermuda.

"Deuss has a lock on Kazakhstan's oil that even a mighty corporation like Chevron Corp. hasn't been able to break. One US State Department official calls him the `king of the carpetbaggers'.'' The article stated little was known of Mr. Deuss outside the world of oil traders.

"Available photographs of him are rare and generally old. One that was taken at a 1989 conference shows a man of unremarkable, and quite normal, appearance.

"But a trader who claims to have dealt with Deuss insists there's a burn scar on one side of his face.

"Another insists, with an equal air of certainty, that there is no scar, but, he says, there is something odd about the patch of hair on the back of Deuss's head. The result of an accident? An attempt on his life? Someone's imagination?'' Mr. Deuss has certainly collected some "ferocious enemies'' through his dealings, the article added.

Mr. John Deuss