(MONEY Magazine) – Being a monarch isn't always as glamorous as it might seem. Just ask His Serene Highness, Prince Lazarus Long (formerly Howard Turney of Tulsa), who says he hopes to begin building his own country, New Utopia, atop three submerged islands in the Caribbean sometime this month.

First the SEC accused him of unlawfully offering to sell $350 million worth of bonds via his website, www.new-utopia.com, a charge he denies (he removed the offering from the site nonetheless). Then the SEC foiled his plan (temporarily, he says) to print currency for his nascent fiefdom. As for the decision to put his royal mug on the New Utopian thousand-dollar bill (above), the 68-year-old Prince replied, "I figured, what the hell, I had to put something on it."

--ROB TURNER