A #1 Bestseller in France

The story you have read about in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Forbes and People Magazine and seen on 60 Minutes, Dateline NBC, CNN and Court TV.

“No actor could have done what Rocancourt did”, Al Pacino once asserted. The world- famous French swindler now tells his life story, one to rival the greatest adventure novels. Abandoned at the age of five by his mother (he later found out she was a prostitute), and left in an orphanage by his alcoholic father, Christophe dreamt up an intriguing past for himself. He persuaded his classmates to shell out candy for his traditional Native American remedies, since he claimed – among other things – to be the grandson of a Sioux chief. Although the means changed, his method never did: in the span of a few years his winning smile, plausible stories and innate acting ability transformed him from a runaway teenager sleeping on a bench to the darling of Paris’ jet set, whose nouveaux riches he fleeced.

Released on probation by a French court, he fled to Los Angeles. There he began his new life in a squalid motel, without a penny to his name. In little time he persuaded even the most level-headed that he was a boxer, a producer – Dino de Laurentiis’ son, a financier, an artist and even an heir to the Rockefeller fortune. That he talked them into parting with millions of dollars, while seducing some of the world’s most beautiful women and partying with the likes of Mickey Rourke and his entourage seems unbelievable. With such stakes, the confidence game becomes high art.

From time to time, the FBI and Interpol came after him, but he managed to escape, going on the run until he was finally arrested on April 26, 2001 in Oak Bay, British Columbia. Thrown in an American federal prison, he fell into a world of violence and fear. There he spent five years meditating on his past crimes.