In the late 1990s Christopher Rockefeller was married to a former Playboy Playmate, driving a Ferrari, and living in Los Angeles, where he had booked himself an entire floor at the Beverly Wilshire. After growing bored of having his picture taken beside blondes with sculpted abs by D-list paparazzi, the French-born heir to an oil fortune moved back east, and in 2000 he lived on Further Lane in East Hampton, where he enjoyed telling people about the Pissarro and the Chagall in his art collection and taking calls from President Bill Clinton on his cell phone.
Except that he didn’t live on Further Lane, he had no art collection to speak of, and he had probably never met Bill Clinton. He lodged in only one room at the Beverly Wilshire, not an entire floor, as he would tell 60 Minutes in 2002, and he stiffed the hotel for $60,000. The marriage to the Playmate—that might have been real.
And his name wasn’t Christopher Rockefeller. It was Christophe Rocancourt, and in 2003 he would be sentenced by a United States federal judge to 46 months imprisonment for wire fraud and scheming to defraud, and he was ordered to pay $1.2 million to people he had fleeced.
Rocancourt sustained his grift with a dizzying array of lies. One victim told 60 Minutes he had promised to help her financially— he was a Rockefeller, after all—but first he just needed a little bit of cash upfront. Then he disappeared.
この記事は Town & Country US の May 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Town & Country US の May 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
For Your Eyes Only
A small wedding has many charms. Here's the proof
Anatomy of a Classic
Ballet flats have been around since medieval times. They still know how to have fun.
It's the Capital Gains Tax, Stupid
In the battle for billionaire political donations, the presidential election finally turned Silicon Valley into Wall Street without the monocle.
I'll Have What She's Wearing
Refined neutrals, face-framing turtlenecks, a white coat that says: I've got 30 more. Twenty-five years on, Rene Russo's Thomas Crown Affair wardrobe remains the blueprint for grown-up glamour.
Isn't That RICH?
If fragrance is invisible jewelry, how do you smell as if you're wearing diamonds, not cubic zirconia?
THE MACKENZIE EFFECT
A $36 billion fortune made MacKenzie Scott one of the richest women in the world. How shes giving it away makes her fascinating.
Her Roman Empire
Seventeen floors up, across from the Vegas behemoth that bears her name, Elaine Wynn is charting a major cultural future for America's casino capital, and she's doing it from a Michael Smith-designed oasis in the middle of the neon desert.
Are You There, God? I'm at Harvard
Why on earth are a bunch of successful midcareer professionals quitting their jobs and applying to Harvard Divinity School? Hint: It has nothing to do with heaven.
Bryan Stevenson
He has dedicated his life to defending the unfairly incarcerated and condemned. But his vision for racial justice has always been about more than winning in court.
Emma Heming Willis
Once best known as a model and entrepreneur, today shes an advocate for patients and caretakers dealing with an incurable disease—one that hits very close to home. Here, she speaks with Katie Couric about her mission.
