Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - SCAM: Christophe Rocancourt

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Emerging from humble beginnings in small-town France, Christophe Rocancourt wormed his way into high society in Paris, Los Angeles, and New York. Everywhere he went, he conned people into giving him money for bogus investments. Whether Christophe pretended to be related to famous film producers or even a European cousin of the famous Rockefeller family, people were happy to hand over their hard-earned money. By the time they realized they'd been duped, Christophe was already gone. Money Crimes is a Crime House Original. For more content, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @crimehouse. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Crime House. I think we can all agree that con artists are fascinating. If you step back and look at the whole picture, it's easy to wonder how anyone fell for their tricks. But when you look closer, it starts to make a lot of sense. Let's start by breaking down the term con artists. It's actually shorthand for confidence, and that's the bedrock of any good scheme. To pull off a con, you have to sell it, and to do that you need to get people to trust you."

That's how Christophe Roquencourt weaseled his way into the hearts and wallets of America's elite. His lies were outlandish. He was so confident though, people couldn't help but believe him. And he used that to get everything he wanted. As the saying goes, those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it. That's especially true when it comes to money. If you want to make the right decisions when it comes to managing your assets, you need to know what mistakes to avoid and how to spot a trap. This is Money Crimes, a Crime House original. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin.

Every Thursday I'll be telling you the story of a famous financial crime and giving you advice on how to avoid becoming a victim yourself. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community for making all of this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Money Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes all the difference. And for ad-free and early access to Money Crimes, plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple podcasts.

Today's episode is about Christophe Roquencourt. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Christophe charmed his way into defrauding some of the world's wealthiest people. But the real secret to his success was celebrity. Christophe pretended to be related to people so famous, it seemed impossible that he could be lying. Whether he was posing as a relative of Oscar de la Renta or Rockefeller, the people he conned never saw it coming. And when the police finally ended his spree, Christophe used the media to pull off his biggest racket of all, becoming a celebrity himself. and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC optimum points. Visit superstore.ca to get started.

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Whatever you choose, your espresso will be handcrafted with care at Starbucks. Paris is the city of endless opportunity. For centuries, artists, writers, and all sorts of opportunists have visited the city of Lights to make their dreams come true. Rich or poor, it's the kind of place that has something for everyone. And in 1985, an 18-year-old aristocrat named Prince de Galadzin came to Paris to make it big. When he got to Paris, Prince enrolled in ENA, an elite school notorious for training France's biggest names, think presidents, CEOs, and prime ministers.

And Prince de Galadzin would be one of them. Or at least that's what he told people. In reality, Prince de Galadzin was Christophe Roquencourt, an orphan from a small French town. He wasn't rich, he wasn't important, and he definitely wasn't a student at ENA. Christophe came from humble beginnings. His mom was a sex worker who abandoned their family, and his dad was a house painter who suffered from alcoholism. After Christophe's mom left, his dad was a house painter who suffered from alcoholism. After Kristof's mom left, his dad couldn't handle it.

When Kristof was nine, he was sent to an orphanage. Kristof was eventually adopted, but his new father was the strict military type. In theory, that sort of structure might have been good for young Kristof. In practice, though, it only made him more determined to live by his own rules. So the moment he turned 18 in 1985, he fled to Paris and adopted his new identity, Prince de Galadzin, a Russian-born French aristocrat. But the new name didn't do much to help Kristof's prospects. People didn't really buy his act, and over the next few years Kristof found himself in

and out of jail for small crimes like petty theft and minor fraud. Kristof didn't let the setbacks get him down though. He was always looking for the next score. And in 1991, he actually got it. See, there was at least one person who bought Kristoff's act, his girlfriend. There aren't a lot of details about her, but she was very pretty, and apparently very rich. Her dad owned a nice townhouse in the city, and presumably, Kristoff was pretty familiar

with it. So acting as Prince de Galadzin, he decided to sell the townhouse, or at least, make someone think he was. Kristoff forged a convincing-looking deed to the townhouse and managed to find an interested buyer who, according to Kristoff, bought the townhouse for $1.4 million. Of course, the sale was fake, but by the time the buyer realized it, there was nothing he could do about it. I don't know what the fallout was here,

but obviously the guy hadn't actually bought the townhouse. But if the deed had been real, the legal situation could have been kind of tricky. With today's technology, it's easier than ever to commit deed fraud, which is the illegal selling of real estate without the owner's knowledge. Fraudsters will forge signatures to take possession of empty properties like vacation or rental homes. After that, they can do pretty much anything. Sell it, rent it, open a home equity line of credit, and once they do, it's a long drawn-out process to stop it.

Being on the other side of the equation, like Kristoff's buyer was, is equally tricky. To make sure you're buying a property that's actually available, make sure to check the public records and property history. These records will be much more secure and they'll show if the house is up for sale or not. In this instance though, Kristoff had gotten away with it. At just 24 years old, he now had more money than he'd ever imagined. But it wasn't enough, and he was willing to do something a lot less sophisticated to get more of it. On September 15, 1991, Christophe and two other armed men stormed into a woman's apartment in Geneva, Switzerland.

They tied her up and kept her overnight. In the morning, they dragged her to the jewelry store where she worked and forced her to open the safe. Inside was $400,000 worth of diamond rings and watches. The Swiss police were hot on their trail and investigators immediately identified Kristoff as one of the thieves. But he had managed to cover his tracks well enough to escape. Even though he'd gotten away with it, Kristoff realized that smash and grab robberies weren't

for him. It was way easier to just get people to hand him cash. But the heat against him was building in Europe. Christophe knew he wouldn't last much longer as Prince de Galadzine. He decided it was time for a new adventure and a new persona. Only now he would play the part of a Hollywood hopeful.

In 1991, 24-year-old Kristoff Rökenkor landed in Los Angeles, California. By now, he'd managed to spend most of the $1.4 million he'd conned his way into, plus whatever money he'd made from the jewelry heist. He also barely spoke English. So, Kristoff had a lot working against him, but he'd gotten used to the high life, and that wasn't about to stop in America. He made his way to the city and checked into the five-star Beverly Wilshire Hotel. When the staff tracked him down a few days later and asked him to please pay for his room, Kristoff simply packed his bags and moved to a different five-star hotel. Kristoff knew he couldn't keep bouncing between hotels forever. If he was going to stick in LA for the long term, he needed to find a more stable housing

arrangement. And to do that, he was willing to get very creative. Sometime later in 1991, Christophe tracked down a guy named Charles Glenn at a restaurant called Café Maurice. Charles was a French wine salesman with a wealthy list of clients, and Christophe wanted access to them. When he sat down next to Charles, he introduced himself as a French boxing champ. As a fellow Frenchman, Charles was happy to chat. When Christophe asked for a ride downtown to his fight, his countryman said, no problem.

Of course, there was no fight, so Kristoff pretended it had been cancelled at the last minute. He gave Charles $500 to tell people he'd won in a first-round knockout. Kristoff didn't really have $500 to spare, but it was a good way to make friends. Charles let him crash at his house, and the two became close. Charles introduced Christophe to his clients and pals, who Christophe promptly began conning as well, starting with a man named Pierre. Pierre was looking to sell his mansion in Bel Air, and Christophe agreed to buy it. But now, he wasn't pretending to be a boxer.

He told Pierre his name was Chris De Laurentiis, nephew of the famous film producer Dino De Laurentiis. As a courtesy, Pierre allowed Christophe to move in while the bank processed the transaction. Pierre had already purchased a new house to live in, so it was no big deal. And surely a De Laurentientes was good for it. But it just so happened that Christophe's bank kept screwing up the wire transfer. This went on for months until finally Pierre told Christophe he had to move out. Christophe begged for more time. He asked Pierre if there was

anything he could do to smooth things over. Like perhaps a long fully paid vacation to Portugal? Pierre was happy to accept. He had no idea that Christophe was funding the trip using an American Express card he'd stolen from another one of Charles' friends. Look, a free trip to Portugal is nice, but after the first hiccup, Pierre should have used that time to dig into Christophe's finances. When you're buying or selling a home, protecting yourself from potential pitfalls, scams and beyond is crucial. As a seller, make sure the buyer provides proof of

funds. This could be a mortgage pre-approval or a statement showing that they have the cash they say they do. And while it may be tempting to do it all yourself to avoid commission fees, don't hesitate to bring in a professional. Whether you're buying or selling, real estate agents, brokers and lawyers are there to make sure everything is above board. Pierre didn't do any of that stuff. As a result, 25-year-old Christophe Roquencourt was squatting in his Bel Air mansion, supposedly waiting for the bank to process his transaction.

But Christophe knew he was on borrowed time. Pierre would eventually realize the wire transfer wasn't coming and kick him out. In the meantime, Kristoff decided to take advantage of his living situation and hit the town. One night in June of 1992, Kristoff went out with his buddy Charles to a trendy nightclub called Bar One. Kristoff immediately noticed a woman named Gre Park working the coat check. Gre was tall with delicate features and long dark hair.

Kristoff was completely hypnotized by her. He introduced himself as his Hollywood persona, Chris De Laurentiis. But Gre wasn't impressed. Celebrities were a dime a dozen in LA, and besides, she was a devout born-again Christian. Gris wasn't about to fall for some random guy, even if he had shampoo commercial hair. But Christophe was persistent. He told Gris he was religious too, and kept coming back to the club just to spend time with her. After six weeks of this, she finally agreed to go out with him,

to church. Then in August of 1992, he convinced her to go with him to Hawaii, with separate rooms of course, plus an interpreter Kristoff had hired. That arrangement didn't last long though. They snorkeled, walked on the beach, and eventually told the interpreter to get lost. The two were married a few months later, in October of 1992, and Gris got pregnant soon after. Kristoff had come a long way since the orphanage. He had rich friends, a beautiful wife, and was living in one of the world's most prestigious neighborhoods. But the good times would not last forever.

Somewhere around then, Pierre came home from his European getaway and realized Christophe was never going to buy his house. Pierre finally kicked him out. But Christophe was adaptable. He and Gris just moved into the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. The room was on credit, of course. Surely they knew Edila Rentis was good for it. But Christophe couldn't coast off his fake name forever. He had built up massive tabs all over town to live the Hollywood lifestyle. And it wasn't long before those boutiques, restaurants, and hotels came looking for their

money. I'm not sure what Christophe told Gris at this point, but she had no idea he was a fraud. But he did convince her that they needed to leave the Peninsula Hotel. And when his creditors kept following him, he told her they needed to leave LA altogether. That's when Gris finally asked him what was going on. This was Christophe's chance to come clean to the one person he should trust. And while it seems like he told Gris his real name, he kept lying about his true identity. Christophe told her he was in the Italian mafia.

Gris had looked past Christophe's shadiness to a point, but believing that her French husband was in the Italian mafia was a bridge too far. Despite being several months pregnant, she packed her bags and moved in with her sister in San Francisco. Christophe was devastated. He may have been a serial liar, but his feelings for Gris were real. He moved up to the Bay Area to win her back, but Gris wasn't having it. Suspecting Kristof was up to something, she called the FBI and offered to give them information on him. Honestly, it started out as a joke, but she said that within a few minutes of hearing

the name Kristof R Roquencourt. It turned out Christophe was on their watch list. Even though he'd escaped from Europe without getting caught for his jewelry heist, the Swiss authorities were still tracking him, and they told the FBI that he might be in the Bay Area. Thanks to Gris, they finally found him. And when Gris found out who Kristoff really was, she was livid. She agreed to help the FBI and let them listen in when Kristoff called her phone. Only when they traced it, he seemed to always be calling from random locations.

One day the call would appear to come in from Seattle, the next day from Tallahassee. Kristof knew the feds were listening, so he attached a scrambler to his landline. The FBI knew they had to get creative if they were going to catch him. They asked Gry to call Kristof before dawn, when he was still groggy and maybe less careful about switching on his scrambler. The plan worked. They found Christophe's real location. Later that day, Gre's phone rang again.

It was Christophe. The FBI had tracked him down. He was calling her from jail. According to Gre, the FBI was confident that he'd be jailed for life. But that didn't turn out to be the case. The Swiss authorities eventually dropped the charges against him for lack of evidence, and although he did go to prison in France for a different swindling charge in 1994, he was a free man by the middle of 1995. The first thing Kristoff did when he got out was call Gree.

He begged her for another chance, and she gave it to him. They got back together, although she didn't have the heart to tell him that she'd had their marriage annulled. It was a good call. Kristoff and Gree moved back to LA, and it wasn't before long before he was up to his old tricks. Greer quickly got tired of Kristoff's antics and ended the relationship for good. By May of 1996, he'd married a Playboy model named Pia Reyes.

Kristoff was eager to start a new family, and in 1997 Piaz gave birth to a baby boy named Zeus. Now that Christophe was back on his feet, he was ready for his next big con. This time he had his eye on a Rodeo Drive boutique owner named Sharam Muzazadeh. Now Sharam hasn't given any interviews about what happened between them, so it's not clear why Kristof targeted him or what he told Sharam to draw him in. But from what I can tell, he may have been selling some kind of business opportunity. The two of them did sign an agreement to open a boutique in the Regent Beverly Wilshire

Hotel. And to convince Sharam he was legit, Kristof probably posed as one of his LA alter egos. He told a lot of people he was the secret relative of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, and to a boutique owner like Sharam, that would have been quite the connection. Of course, to get the deal done, Kristoff had to look the part of a savvy businessman. So he convinced Sharam to fork over at least $200,000 and lend him a Ferrari, which Sharam never saw again. But when Kristoff inevitably disappeared, Sharam didn't report him. Again, since he's never really talked about it, there's no way to know why he wouldn't

try to turn Christophe in. But in LA, image is extremely important. Maybe Charam thought if people knew he had been taken by a con man, they wouldn't want to do business with him anymore. And that was just fine by Kristoff. He was hundreds of thousands of dollars richer, with an expensive sports car to go along with it. If he had just stopped there, he could have probably ridden into the sunset scot-free. But Kristoff couldn't help himself. He always wanted more. And there were some situations he just couldn't talk himself out of.

In the spring of 1998, 31-year-old Christophe Roquencourt was riding high. Not only had he run successful scams across LA, but he had a beautiful new companion. And it wasn't his wife, Pia Reyes. Sometime around late 1997, Christophe was at the World Music Awards in Monaco. He was posing as a prospective investor in the awards, which is probably what got him into a fancy pre-production dinner. While he was there, he met a model named Rhonda Rydell. Christophe wowed Rhonda with a story about being the son of a French countess, and they became attached at the hip for the next six months. As for Christophe's wife Pia and their

infant son, Zeus, it's hard to say. They were living in L.A. at this point, although it's not clear if Pia knew about what Kristoff was up to. One thing is for sure, he did not tell Rhonda about his wife and son, or about his colorful history as a con artist. But she was about to find out. In March of 1998, Kristoff claimed that he had gotten into an altercation with a group of guys at a nightclub. The guys spotted him driving around the next day, and they caught up to him at a red light. Shots were fired, and Kristoff sped to the nearest sheriff station. The ensuing investigation proved that Kristof was right about the gunshots, but they all came from inside his car.

Honestly, it's not clear what happened exactly. It doesn't seem like the authorities ever tracked down the guys from the club. All they knew was that Kristof had fired a gun that he wasn't licensed to carry. And when sheriff's deputies ran Kristof's name, they found even more incriminating information. Kristof had an outstanding warrant for passport fraud. Then another one of Kristof's secrets was revealed as well. When Ronda came into the station, she came face to face with Pia, Kristof's wife. For the next three months, Kristof was held in jail while he awaited trial. During that time, Ronda tried to stay loyal to him, even though he was married, but eventually

she broke it off. In July of 1998, Kristof, while out on bail, decided to skip town with Pia and their son, Zeus. It's hard to say where they went after that, but by late 1999, they were living large in New York City, renting out a ritzy loft in Lower Manhattan. Christophe found that people in New York were just as gullible as those in LA. Over the next few months, he went on a pretty impressive run, even by his standards. Like in all previous stops, his go-to move was presenting potential investors with bogus business opportunities.

Then, once he got the money, he disappeared on them. If you ask me, these scams were a textbook case of wire transfer fraud, which is when someone asks you to wire them money under false pretenses. It can be for a fake real estate deal, an investment scheme, you name it. One reason wire transfer fraud is so popular with con artists like Christophe is that the funds are transferred almost instantly. And by the time you realized what's happened, it may be too late to get your money back. It could have been sent to an offshore account, converted into untraceable cryptocurrency, or the scammer may have just withdrawn it

all and fled the country. But Kristoff wasn't interested in going anywhere. As the spring of 2000 rolled into summer, he decided to keep following the money. That meant taking his talents to the Hamptons, where he unveiled his most ambitious persona yet. Christopher Rockefeller. Up to this point, Kristoff had done a good job of fitting into surroundings. An ambitious aristocrat in Paris, a Hollywood bigwig in LA, so in the Hamptons it made sense to fake a connection to one of the world's richest families. But it took more than a charming smile and a flashy name to fool the old money elite

that Christophe was trying to swindle. They could smell BS from a mile away, and Christophe reeked. Even though he was posing as a distant Rockefeller cousin from France, there was no getting past the garish eagle tattoo on his arm and the fact that Christophe drove a Mazda. And there was another problem with trying to con his way around the Hamptons. Eventually, Christophe ran into someone who actually knew the Rockefellers, and he wasn't falling for Christophe's act. He called the police, and while they couldn't really figure out any major crimes Kristoff had committed, they did find that he

hadn't paid his $8,000 hotel bill. That was enough to take him in. Kristoff had been in this situation before though, and he wasn't panicking. At the station he gave authorities a fake passport so they couldn't figure out his real identity. Since they didn't know Kristof's laundry list of crimes, they let him out on $45,000 bail. The second he was out, Kristof disappeared. This time he decided to try his hand in Canada. In the fall of 2000, 33 year old Christophe

headed to Vancouver, British Columbia with Pia and Zeus in tow. This time he told people he was a Formula One driver and businessman. Like his other stops, this colorful persona worked for a while. But by April 2001, the Canadian authorities had caught on to him. They tracked him down at his hotel and put him in handcuffs. And this time,

he stayed in them. In the end, Christophe spent a year in Canadian prison. After that, he was extradited to the US where he pled guilty to a range of charges including theft, grand larceny, and fraud. He was sentenced to three years and ten months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution. Kristof was finally paying for his crimes. But it didn't work out quite the way authorities had hoped. Kristoff's trial got a ton of publicity.

Everyone wanted to know about the fake Rockefeller who had conned countless people out of millions. Kristoff received a six-figure book deal for his story while he was in prison. His memoir, I, Christophe Roquencourt, Orphan, Playboy, Prisoner, became a bestseller. But the proceeds of the book didn't go to his victims like it should have. The publisher was French and Christophe hid the funds in offshore accounts. He didn't pay anyone a dime. Christophe was released from prison in October of 2005 and returned to France a celebrity. He has had quite a life since then. He left Pia and married a former Miss France, Sonia Rolland.

They had a child together. Then Christophe reportedly left her for model Naomi Campbell. The perks of celebrity extended beyond his love life. It also enabled Christophe to con French filmmaker Catherine Briand, using his greatest persona yet, himself. In 2009, Catherine was dealing with a medical emergency, which is when Christophe convinced her to invest in a biopic about his life. Of course, the movie never happened, and Catherine publicly accused him of fraud.

In 2012, Christophe was convicted of abuse of weakness. He was sentenced to 16 months in a French prison. You would think by this point, Kristoff would have gotten the hint and called it quits. But knowing him, that's probably never going to happen. From what I can tell, he hasn't gotten any additional jail time since he's gotten out. But that doesn't mean he's not up to something. If you check out his Instagram profile, you'll find that Kristoff is living the high life,

cozying up to A-listers all over the globe. And chances are, he's plotting something. Like with any con artist, a big takeaway from this story is watch who you trust. But I feel like the bigger lesson here is don't let yourself fall for a big name. People who are famous and rich come out with an implicit level of credibility,

whether it's their reputation or their fortune, they've got a lot to lose if they get caught in a lie. And that's a big reason Christophe Roquencourt got away with so much. People figured this guy would never lie, there's too much at stake for him. It also helped that he was working in a time before you could just pull out your phone and Google him. But no matter what era you're living in, if someone is selling something that seems too good to be true, don't take it at face value, even if they say they're a Rockefeller.

Thank you so much for listening. I'm your host Nicole Lapin. Come back next time as I take you through another wild story and offer you some advice along the way. Money Crimes is a Crime House original powered by PAVE Studios. Join me every Thursday for a new episode. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on Instagram and on TikTok.

And don't forget to rate, review and follow Money Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. And for ad-free and early access to Money Crimes plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. Money Crimes is hosted by me, Nicole Lapin, and is a Crime House original powered by PAVE Studios. It is executive produced by Max Cutler. This episode of Money Crimes was produced and directed by Ron Shapiro, written by Mike McClure, edited by Natalie Prusovsky, fact-checked by

Sarah Tartuffe, sound designed by Russell Nash, and included production assistance from Sarah Carroll. Of the many sources we used when researching this episode, the one we found the most credible and helpful was the Vanity Fair article, The Counterfeit Rockefeller by Ryan Burrow.