Con Man to the Stars Plans Book, Court Told
Fri Jun 14, 5:57 PM ET
By Allan Dowd
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A French con man accused of swindling the rich and famous across North America with tales of being a wealthy Rockefeller or a Formula One racing driver, has renounced his life of crime to write novels, a Canadian court was told on Friday.
Christopher Rocancourt was sentenced to the equivalent of two years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding a Vancouver-area businessman in a scam that included claims he was a race car driver on the same Formula One Ferrari team as World Champion Michael Schumacher.
Rocancourt, 34, has been in custody since his arrest by Canadian authorities in April 2001 and, under a plea agreement with the court, all but one day his sentence was covered by time already served. He was also ordered to pay about $97,000 in restitution.
Rocancourt now faces extradition to the United States to face fraud charges there, but his attorney said on Friday that he would likely agree to be sent back.
"He did what he did, he knew what he was doing... He wishes to move on with his life," attorney Mayland McKimm told the court, saying his client no longer had "the energy" to continue as a con artist and evading the police.
Rocancourt, who was born in poverty in France but spun elaborate tales of a wealthy upbringing to his victims, mostly in the United States, now wants to write novels, McKimm told the British Columbia Provincial Court hearing.
Police believe Rocancourt fled to Canada after he was arrested in East Hampton, New York, in August 2000 for allegedly soaking rich victims of nearly $1 million by claiming to be "Christopher Rockefeller."
Rocancourt and his wife, former Playboy model Maria Pia Reyes, stayed in Vancouver and at the posh Whistler ski resort of north of the city, where he claimed to be the son of a wealthy European financier and international race car driver.
"I'm not as good as Schumacher, but I'm getting there," Rocancourt told his Canadian victim, Robert Baldock, prosecutor Miriam Maisonville told the court.
Rocancourt told Baldock he wanted to invest more than $5 million in his company, Heartlink Canada, and convinced Baldock to pay his expenses, including stays at lavish hotels, while the deal was being closed, according to police.
While in Whistler, Rocancourt also offered to buy a C$10 million home that was under construction -- and was so convincing the construction crew followed his suggestions on changes to the lavish building.
Baldock eventually became suspicious and alerted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
McKimm said that while Rocancourt admitted "absolute" guilt he had also never felt bad about his victims because they were greedy and wealthy enough to afford it. "It isn't his desire that people be ruined because of his activity," he told the court.
The United States wants Rocancourt for alleged fraud in New York and Los Angles -- where he rubbed elbows with Hollywood stars such as Mickey Rourke and convinced people he was a friend of then-President Bill Clinton.
After both his New York and Los Angles arrests, Rocancourt disappeared after posting large cash bonds.
Canadian authorities said they agreed to let Rocancourt be sentenced to time served, in part because it avoided having a costly trial with witnesses brought in from around the world -- including the head of Ferrari's Formula One racing team.
But in handing down her sentence Judge Conni Bagnall indicated she did not necessarily believe that Rocancourt had absolutely given up his of crime.
Outside of court, Reyes, against whom charges have been stayed, told reporters she did not think of her husband as a criminal, but rather as an "imaginative" individual.
"It's like I'm married to 100 men," she said.
Reyes said that Rocancourt has hired a literary agent and is working on an autobiography. |
