Christophe Thierry Daniel Rocancourt colloquially Christopher Rocancourt (born 16 July 1967), is a French impostor and confidence man who scammed affluent people by masquerading in turn as a French nobleman, the heir to the Rockefeller family or family member of a celebrity.
[1] Making his way to the United States, Rocancourt used at least a dozen aliases, and got the rich and powerful to invest in his schemes, he told Dateline, by tapping into their greed.
In Los Angeles, he pretended to be a movie producer, ex-boxing champion or venture capitalist; he also claimed to be the illegitimate son of Sophia Loren, the nephew of Oscar de la Renta and Dino De Laurentiis, and he associated himself with various celebrities, living for a time with Mickey Rourke, and apparently convincing actor Jean-Claude Van Damme to produce his next movie.
He was arrested in 2000 in the Hamptons for an unpaid hotel bill, and was also wanted for involvement in diamond smuggling, possession of hand grenades, money laundering, bribery, perjury, and at least 17 cases of defrauding people by offering them to invest with him.
After posting bail, he again fled and relocated to Canada where he assumed the identity of Grand Prix driver Michael van Hoven.
[1][3] Rocancourt served a year in prison before being extradited to New York and pleading guilty to charges of theft, grand larceny, smuggling, bribery, perjury and fraud against 19 victims.
[7] In October 2014, he was arrested along with his lawyer, 23-year-old girlfriend, and a member of the French police that he allegedly bribed to supply him with genuine passports and visas to be sold on for extortionate sums to illegal migrants.