Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Zaron Burnett. What up,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Dutton? You know it's ridiculous, girl. I do the
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz stop? Yeah? Did you ever wonder why as
Speaker 1: a team in Salt Lake City called the Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: didn't they start somewhere else? New Orleans of courts, right,
Speaker 1: They were the New Orleans Jazz. They were an expansion team,
Speaker 1: and they chose their name because jazz is quote defined
Speaker 1: in the Dictionary as collective improvisation, and that's basketball to them.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, we're the Utah. We're sorry, Utah, We're
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Jazz. Okay, well, Elizabeth Jazz, and that
Speaker 1: belongs in New Orleans basketball apparently does not, because I
Speaker 1: looked into this because I was curious, like, how did
Speaker 1: that ever happen? Oh Man? In their second stadium, they
Speaker 1: had an elevated court. They were only in New Orleans
Speaker 1: for five years, but they had a second stadium, and
Speaker 1: in the second stadium they was elevated. It was elevated
Speaker 1: so high that the NBA Players Association, the Union for players,
Speaker 1: made the Jazz at a net around the court so
Speaker 1: when players fell off, they didn't get hurt here kidding,
Speaker 1: like what is going didn't have like enough of a
Speaker 1: I don't hurt. It was elevated like you would be
Speaker 1: watching it like it was a boxing match or something
Speaker 1: like they were up high above the crowd. Is that
Speaker 1: just so that we could all peak up their shorts? Maybe? Yes,
Speaker 1: they were very short then, But there was also like
Speaker 1: not just that, there was the issue of Mardi Gras.
Speaker 1: So whenever they had to leave and be out of
Speaker 1: the town, out of New Orleans the entire month that
Speaker 1: Mardi Gras was going, because nobody would go to the basketball,
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, forget that. So they were like, well,
Speaker 1: we can't have that look bad, So they would just
Speaker 1: leave town for a whole month. They go on a
Speaker 1: road trip because of Mardi Gras. So after this five years,
Speaker 1: people were like, look, we got to get basketball out
Speaker 1: of New Orleans. So then they moved it to Utah
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, yeah, but why didn't they change
Speaker 1: that question? You know why? Paperwork? What they missed a deadline.
Speaker 1: The league had a deadline for to approve a name change.
Speaker 1: They couldn't get that in time. So because they didn't
Speaker 1: do that, they just had to keep the Mardi Gras
Speaker 1: colors and become the Utah Jazz. And so to this day,
Speaker 1: this Utah Bay Professional basketball team, they now have a
Speaker 1: mascot named Jazz Bear who rides into the stadium on
Speaker 1: a dirt motorbike and he fires off like I don't know,
Speaker 1: t shirt guns and you like that, and I don't
Speaker 1: know the only way that this makes sense to me
Speaker 1: is if Jazz Bear and Cocaine Bear are related, that
Speaker 1: would make sense, and then are they are? Now that's
Speaker 1: cannon So but like the team, the team should be
Speaker 1: the Utah Templars, right or the Honeybees. Dude. I saw
Speaker 1: somebody on Reddit they said that, you know, they point
Speaker 1: basically pointed out that it's right next to the Salt
Speaker 1: Lake Green Salt Lake, and they're like, that thing's got
Speaker 1: mad Brian Shrimp. So dude, Reddit user bush did Cloverfield.
Speaker 1: He posted that the Utah Jazz and I quote should
Speaker 1: be called the Utah Sea Monkeys, and I agree with
Speaker 1: bush did Cloverfield. Go see monkeys. I'm gonna do a
Speaker 1: change dot Org post this make this happen there. You
Speaker 1: got ridiculous, right, It's ridiculous. Yeah, do you know what
Speaker 1: else is ridiculous. Now hit me with it having a
Speaker 1: con career that involves creating a perfume. In line with
Speaker 1: Jermaine Jackson, This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd
Speaker 1: and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. Zaren. I
Speaker 1: love a good European con artist. Yeah, you do, right,
Speaker 1: especially when the con takes their show on the road
Speaker 1: to the United States. That's when it gets good. Well,
Speaker 1: there were such suckers here for British or European accents
Speaker 1: and continental mannerism. Oh my god. Yeah, if you wear
Speaker 1: like pants where I can see your ankles, and oh
Speaker 1: you must know things, brilliant things. Well, I think you
Speaker 1: know a little about this from your time in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Did you ever encounter any eighty Europeans when you were there?
Speaker 1: Did I ever, we could ask a shorter question, did
Speaker 1: I ever meet any like solid and well to do
Speaker 1: and reasonable Europeans in the film industry? No, I would
Speaker 1: say that. Yeah, I met a ton of shady like
Speaker 1: mostly French, a lot of and so gentlemen. So I
Speaker 1: just trying to find places to invest our money because
Speaker 1: we all saw it, like what you're doing at Hollywood
Speaker 1: is so much fun, and everybody around the world peas
Speaker 1: attentions and we have you don't know very well in
Speaker 1: Germany right now. So we're looking for places to invest.
Speaker 1: Do you need some money? You're like, are you kidding?
Speaker 1: You're not a real investor. This is a cocaine deal. Basically,
Speaker 1: I think that the guy I'm going to tell you
Speaker 1: about it was before your time there, but he would
Speaker 1: blend right into what you're talking about. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: a man named Christophe Rocancorp. Oh good name. Or was
Speaker 1: Christopher Reyes or Christopher Lloyd or Christopher de Laurentis or
Speaker 1: Christopher Rockefeller. Oh, yeah, I've heard me. I'm catching I'm
Speaker 1: catching up. Yeah, so I said European, right, This dude's French.
Speaker 1: Apparently he's from the French branch of the Rockefeller fan
Speaker 1: Christophe Terry Danielle Rocancourt. He was born in nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: seven in En Fleur, of France. So his dad was
Speaker 1: a house painter and a drunk and an all around
Speaker 1: garbage human being. I was gonna say, you had me
Speaker 1: going with house and then it fell off. It just
Speaker 1: went right off. A cliff. His mom was a seventeen
Speaker 1: year old prostitute. His early home life was obviously chaotic.
Speaker 1: Sounds like chaotic is an understatement. Yes, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get into it because it's a sad, horrible mess.
Speaker 1: But the essential part is that Christophe wound up in
Speaker 1: an orphanage. So he gets adopted when he's twelve by
Speaker 1: this military guy in his family, great Tantini type, well,
Speaker 1: super disciplinarian. Yeah, Christoph ran away a few times and
Speaker 1: then took off for good when he was eighteen. That
Speaker 1: was in nineteen eighty five. So he goes to Paris,
Speaker 1: does some modeling. Okay, as you do, didn't see that coming. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he got himself a wealthy girlfriend, and then he pulled
Speaker 1: his very first con look at you. Yeah, he said
Speaker 1: he was Russian nobility, and he called himself Prince day
Speaker 1: Gallots in Prince de Gallots as Prince de Gallotzin. He
Speaker 1: forged a deed to this one of the posh townhouses
Speaker 1: that his girlfriend's father owned. Oh yeah, wow, and then
Speaker 1: he tried to sell it a choice one point two
Speaker 1: million dollars. Oh wow? Did he? The girlfriend's father owned
Speaker 1: a lot of places. He owned a ton of places,
Speaker 1: but no one was buying his Russian royalties, so it
Speaker 1: didn't fly. But between eighty seven in nineteen ninety two
Speaker 1: he did five different jail stints for forgery, counterfeiting, petty larceny.
Speaker 1: So he was not good. No, he was not good
Speaker 1: at this. Yes, he skipped over the border to Switzerland
Speaker 1: and then he participated in this home invasion robbery that
Speaker 1: kind of blossomed into a jewelry store heist. That's strange. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they bust in, They're like, oh, you you own this
Speaker 1: jewelry store. Take us to the Oh so the cops
Speaker 1: pinned him is a one, Yeah, exactly there. Oh hey,
Speaker 1: you're at the jewelry store in Or Let's go down
Speaker 1: to your business. They pit. The cops take him as
Speaker 1: a suspect, but he leaves the country mark so before
Speaker 1: you can get caught, where did he go? His next
Speaker 1: location was the perfect spot for him and where he
Speaker 1: could really run his con in the best possible way.
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Oh, yes, so it's ninety one. He's twenty
Speaker 1: four years old. He's a Frenchman on a mission to
Speaker 1: reinvent himself and lighten some bank accounts along the way.
Speaker 1: This is who you meet in exactly, so he gets
Speaker 1: in good with the French expatriates in Los Angeles. The
Speaker 1: epicenter of that crowd was Cafe Maurice on Las Siannaga, Okay,
Speaker 1: and the location is now the Belmont, But for many years,
Speaker 1: up until two thousand and one, Cafe Maurice was the
Speaker 1: spot for the French and those who wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of be in their orbit. The snobbery was exceptionally thick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a pure Parisian gem. You know what else was thick?
Speaker 1: This guy's accent. Rokan Corp. Yeah. I watched his interview
Speaker 1: with Steve Croft on sixty Minutes and I was totally
Speaker 1: blown away. I thought your French accent was thick, like
Speaker 1: comically so yes, I didn't think any real Frenchman sounded
Speaker 1: like that when speaking English. I was wrong. Yes, Mother
Speaker 1: of Pearl, his accent is thick. So anyway, basically I
Speaker 1: do not know what she'll talking about. Um On. In
Speaker 1: June of nineteen ninety two, Rokean Corp. He went to
Speaker 1: this place called Bar One on Sunset Boulevard and it
Speaker 1: was the hip spot in the nineties for Hollywood types
Speaker 1: and the wealthy. Um there were tons of paparazzi photos
Speaker 1: of people like I looked it up. Who was going
Speaker 1: to Bar One at this time? Pam Anderson, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Ringo Starr had a birthday party there. Christian Slater, Oh yes,
Speaker 1: Scott bo It's like El listaries. Um, it was a
Speaker 1: hot spot. You gotta trust meet. It was a hot spot.
Speaker 1: Even though I couldn't find photographing the so Rogan Corp.
Speaker 1: He wanted to go to Bar One, not for celebrity
Speaker 1: spotting or like schmooz rich dudes. He wanted a wheeze
Speaker 1: on the coach check girl a born again Christian named
Speaker 1: greed Park so green. She tried her hand at acting.
Speaker 1: She was in the Adventures of Ford Fairlane as twin
Speaker 1: club Girl, and then she was in an episode of
Speaker 1: Freddie's Nightmares. But now here she is reading the Bible
Speaker 1: while working the coach check of Bar One. Like she
Speaker 1: literally sat there reading the Broken Corps, smitten and relentless.
Speaker 1: He's like, there's a market or should I say De
Speaker 1: Laurentis was smitten and relent He introduced himself degree as
Speaker 1: Christopher de Laurentis, nephew of film producer Dino de Laurentis. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, why not. Yeah, and he's determined to get
Speaker 1: together with gree He offers to go to church with her. Wow,
Speaker 1: he's like, that's a good date. A couple of months,
Speaker 1: his pursuit pays off, Like he just keeps at her,
Speaker 1: keeps at her. They didn't have like a normal first date,
Speaker 1: they didn't have a first kiss. They flew to Hawaii
Speaker 1: for a vacation. He took her to Hawaii, right, the
Speaker 1: first thing he did. First thing, the first time he
Speaker 1: gets her out of bar one is to go to
Speaker 1: They had separate rooms in Hawaii, so he and she's
Speaker 1: like he was a perfect gentleman. So over time though,
Speaker 1: he wins her affections, and he also confesses his cons
Speaker 1: to her. This is like way before Instagram, fly me
Speaker 1: out store completely this Yeah, she has nowhere to post
Speaker 1: the picks. Yeah, so you know people who say they're
Speaker 1: not doing it for the Graham or doing it for
Speaker 1: the Graham. Um, So he confesses his cons. He also
Speaker 1: tells her his real name, and he gets her to
Speaker 1: Hawaiian decides the confessor. No, this is like when they
Speaker 1: get back and so then they're kind of they're like
Speaker 1: going around. They go to Vegas, all the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is October of ninety two. The love bombing work. Yes,
Speaker 1: the love bombing paid off on one of their Vegas trips.
Speaker 1: They got married and then they moved into this new
Speaker 1: home together, a suite at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel,
Speaker 1: so green. Though she's starting a little suspicious. None of
Speaker 1: his stories are adding up, and like debts are piling up.
Speaker 1: They're starting to have like bill collectors come. So she
Speaker 1: threatens to leave unless he tells the truth about himself
Speaker 1: and his life. Like, hey, Chris, your dad really a diplomat.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, Leno, he was diplomatic. He was diplomatique
Speaker 1: Uh was he? Are you a drug dealer? Christ Leno?
Speaker 1: And then he's like, all right, fine, I'm a criminal.
Speaker 1: I'm actually part of the Italian mafia. Gree's like I've
Speaker 1: had enough. I know. That does it for the Italian mafia? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So she the Italian, the Frenchman and the Italian mafia.
Speaker 1: So she's like, look, I'm leaving. She goes to her
Speaker 1: sisters in San Francisco. I need to tell you that
Speaker 1: at the time, she's pregnant with their child. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so she didn't tell him where she was going. Somehow
Speaker 1: he tracks her down. Um, he moved into a place
Speaker 1: just across the Golden Gate from her in Saceleto, a
Speaker 1: lot of marks in Saceleto, and he begs her over
Speaker 1: and over again to reconcile. Did she call the cops? No,
Speaker 1: kind of she called the FBI. Wow. Yeah, So she's
Speaker 1: just like, this guy's harassing me whatever, So she calls
Speaker 1: the FBI kind of like you called the Coastguard. She
Speaker 1: called the FBI. Yeah, But here's what she does. She
Speaker 1: calls him up and she's like, hey, um, i am
Speaker 1: married to this guy Christopher Rokeencorp. If you've heard of him,
Speaker 1: or if you have anything you want to talk about,
Speaker 1: give me a call. She leaves a message. Five minutes later,
Speaker 1: they call back, and then like ten minutes after that,
Speaker 1: an agents at her door, already in the Bay Area
Speaker 1: to track him down, because like the agent had gone
Speaker 1: interviewed a bunch of people in Saceleto and in NAPA
Speaker 1: who said they'd all been caned by a guy named
Speaker 1: Christopher de Laurentis and they lost money to him. So
Speaker 1: Gree's like, you know what I'm in, Let's catch this
Speaker 1: guy like yeah, So phones are tapped, calls are traced.
Speaker 1: Greece sets up this call with Rokean Corp. She's like, honey,
Speaker 1: it's over for good no, and then like he hangs
Speaker 1: up on her. A few minutes later, he called right back.
Speaker 1: He's like, guess what if BI has arrested me? And
Speaker 1: so hangs up and he's like, I know it was you.
Speaker 1: He's like, by zuwe, I will not kill you. Tells
Speaker 1: her I'm not going to kill you. So there's that.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, well I feel a little bit better
Speaker 1: about that. You feel safe. So Rokean Corps. He was
Speaker 1: wanted for that Swiss home invasion turn jewelry heist. He
Speaker 1: gets extradited to Geneva. There wasn't enough evidence though, so
Speaker 1: he gets handed over to the French for all those
Speaker 1: old swindles that he pulled back there. He went to
Speaker 1: prison in France in nineteen ninety four, supposedly for life,
Speaker 1: real sentence. Wow, well that sounds excessive, it does, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: The French thought so too, so he comes very French.
Speaker 1: He goes in in ninety four and he comes out
Speaker 1: in ninety five, from life to one year. Say love
Speaker 1: you if we have a chance in life it is,
Speaker 1: it is so imperminent, why should we make you spend
Speaker 1: the impermanent here? So what does he do? He gets
Speaker 1: out and he contacts gree and I am back. He's like,
Speaker 1: come to Paris and she does. She's like, all right,
Speaker 1: I guess it's like she's the mother of his child.
Speaker 1: Or they get back together. She really belies in prison reform.
Speaker 1: It's restorative. So they get back together. But she what
Speaker 1: she doesn't tell them is she's had their Marriaginald, so
Speaker 1: it's over. But like, all right, fine, I'll give it
Speaker 1: a shot. They both eventually go back to La and
Speaker 1: then rocan cor is like, I'm going to go straight,
Speaker 1: but he obviously doesn't. He doesn't know how to do that,
Speaker 1: because otherwise that would be the end of this episode.
Speaker 1: So they're on again, off again, and he's like getting
Speaker 1: help from her like Christian missionary pals. Oh wow, Like
Speaker 1: you can sleep on my sofa and I'll pay for
Speaker 1: you to take some classes or whatever. The sheep invites
Speaker 1: the wolf into their homes basically, but at the whole time,
Speaker 1: Rogan corp he's romancing a pla boy model named Pia
Speaker 1: Rea's yeah, and in nineteen ninety six they got married.
Speaker 1: So he marries this playboy model. They move into Sweet
Speaker 1: ten ninety at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and he
Speaker 1: tells everyone that he's this wealthy French businessman. Sometimes he's
Speaker 1: Christopher de la Rena, nephew of fashion designer Oscar de
Speaker 1: la Renta. Sometimes he says he owns all these Beverly
Speaker 1: Hills boutiques. Sometimes he's Christopher Reyas like he takes progressive
Speaker 1: he takes his wife's name, you know. So he's running
Speaker 1: up all these huge tabs at hotels, boutiques, restaurants because
Speaker 1: he's convincing. Things start to get a little close with
Speaker 1: the debts. So then he just like swindles someone new,
Speaker 1: pays them off and then keeps going. So he just
Speaker 1: clears his debt with a new swindle, Peter exactly. So
Speaker 1: there he is cruising around La in a Ferrari, this
Speaker 1: gray Ferrari. He's playing the part of bon vivant. Everyone
Speaker 1: wanted to come and party at Sweet ten ninety. Celebrities,
Speaker 1: rich weirdos, Hollywood freaks, Beverly Hills adventurers. This is getting
Speaker 1: like a Stefan from sn He got himself a bodyguard,
Speaker 1: a guy named Benny omgarum Omgar also did security for
Speaker 1: another late nineties spectacle and a Nicole Smith. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we're in that. Like, um so, let's take a break
Speaker 1: and process this. When we come back, I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you about the people who partied in Sweet ten
Speaker 1: ninety and we're back. Hey, look at us. We're at
Speaker 1: the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Oh yeah, we can see
Speaker 1: Rodeo drive from here exactly U Roken Corps. He's married
Speaker 1: to a playboy bunny living it up. You know. He
Speaker 1: has tons of interesting and weird and shady and naive
Speaker 1: people hanging around and partying with him. It's la Well,
Speaker 1: you'd have like a list of like all the stuff
Speaker 1: that they like, like drugs, Asian ladies like so. Um so.
Speaker 1: There's another grifter in this orbit named Leah Bongo. That's
Speaker 1: a great name. Well, she's the daughter of Omar Bongo,
Speaker 1: president of Gabon. Oh so not like the cousin of
Speaker 1: no So. He was president for forty two years from
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven to his death in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: and he was plagued by allegations of corruption most of
Speaker 1: the president of Yes. Um he was one of the
Speaker 1: wealthiest heads of state thanks to oil money and corrupt ruption. Yes,
Speaker 1: the other Jack Abramoff scandal. Oh yeah so he yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: He was the lobbyist who went to jail for corruption
Speaker 1: and bribery. That's the simplest way to explain that one. Um.
Speaker 1: You should do an episode on Jackie. Oh yeah, him Ambigoyevich. Yes. Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: so Abramoff he offered to put together a meeting between
Speaker 1: George W. Bush and Bongo for the low, low price
Speaker 1: of nine million. Wow it was meg. Yeah. It was
Speaker 1: never proven that money changed hands, but Bush did meet
Speaker 1: with Bongo less than a year after the offer was made. Wow.
Speaker 1: So omar Bongo. He had thirty kids and of those kids,
Speaker 1: one Leah Bongo. And who is she. She's the assistant
Speaker 1: to Jermaine Jackson. Wait a minute, you're the daughter of
Speaker 1: a president and the best gig you can get is well.
Speaker 1: Herruption that he had is he was sending tons of
Speaker 1: money over to the States and buying mansions Malibu and
Speaker 1: all these other places, and and just living this lavish
Speaker 1: lifestyle and sending his kids exactly. So I'm not so
Speaker 1: sure if she was like the true assistant or just
Speaker 1: like Smaine Jackson. Sure, but the fact you had to
Speaker 1: show up anywhere on a schedule look like like a
Speaker 1: clock was a part of her life is amazing. Well,
Speaker 1: every time I see the name Jermaine Jackson, all I
Speaker 1: think about is that he has a kid named your Majesty,
Speaker 1: and I just keep marveling at that. I give myself
Speaker 1: a little clothes mouth chuckle. So Leah Bongo. She gives
Speaker 1: ROCANCR access to a bunch of like hyper wealthy African
Speaker 1: royalty and he uses that to his full advantage. They're
Speaker 1: giving him cars, they're learning him money, so he's just
Speaker 1: taken advantage. Another clown in this circus is a guy
Speaker 1: named Carlos Pinto. He's a Beverly Hills cop and how
Speaker 1: did he meet? Rocan Corps? Gave him a ticket once? Oh,
Speaker 1: i'll take you with corruption now, and suddenly they're like
Speaker 1: Pal's his sister, Lillian Pinhoe, she also entered the friend group.
Speaker 1: She wound up giving ROCANCR one hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars for one of his phony investment schemes, and
Speaker 1: this time he said it was a project to open
Speaker 1: an Italian men's clothing shop called pal Zileery downstairs in
Speaker 1: the lobby of the Regent Beverly Wilsher. So he's scamming
Speaker 1: a Cops sister out of one hundred grand to make
Speaker 1: some when she went to this whole thing trying to
Speaker 1: get the money back where she she had to fly
Speaker 1: somewhere to meet up with him, and he had this
Speaker 1: henchman with him, and she thought he was like an assassin,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna give her this check. And the henchman
Speaker 1: pulls the check out of his tie and hands it
Speaker 1: to her and she opens it up and it's like
Speaker 1: a fake check, but it's signed by Steve Martin, like
Speaker 1: the comedian. What the whole thing is so confusing? She's confused.
Speaker 1: She's like, are you kidding me? So he takes it
Speaker 1: and then he's like confides like I'm not really a henchman.
Speaker 1: I'm like I got con too, So anyway, that's Lilian,
Speaker 1: I'm like you so, and the check coming out of
Speaker 1: the tie likes a little it's like those old shoes,
Speaker 1: like the kangaroos with the zipper and all you can
Speaker 1: get anyway, Steve randomly Steve Martin. So here's Christopher. He's
Speaker 1: like two littling around Beverly Hills and his Ferrari. He
Speaker 1: comes up with fake business deals with which to con
Speaker 1: the wealthy and like the not so wealthy of their money.
Speaker 1: Most of the people were wary of his schemes, but
Speaker 1: two men kept him afloat all right. M One was
Speaker 1: Michelle Paulnarf, an aging French pop star who was just
Speaker 1: like in a blonde like his hair looks like a blonde,
Speaker 1: fright wigs, just a fright um he met he Paulnarf
Speaker 1: met Rocan Court at Cafe Maurice one day. Pulnar Ff
Speaker 1: was like bemoaning the dangers of being a celebrity that
Speaker 1: like no one had ever heard of um and Rokan
Speaker 1: Cort told him, like, I get you a national gun permit.
Speaker 1: There's no such things. No, Paulnarf is like, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 1: That sounds amazing. He gives him a couple hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars to secure one a couple thousand for a gun plan.
Speaker 1: I forgot the perfect Terran. He doesn't deserve the money. No.
Speaker 1: Another dupe was a guy um Shahram Muzazade. Okay, So
Speaker 1: Shaam he was a boutique owner. Okay, Um, I think
Speaker 1: he may have been a fellow con artist, but that's
Speaker 1: pure speculation on my right. So Shaam gave Rokan Court
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars in cash, twenty five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: worth of clothes. And then that little KICKI Ferrari he
Speaker 1: was driving around town. Remember Jermaine Jackson, yes, father of
Speaker 1: ger Majesty, and his assistant Leabongo Rocancourt met them in
Speaker 1: one of Shaham's boutiques. Um, all four of them came
Speaker 1: up with his plan in which sharem would sell a
Speaker 1: line of perfumes based on the hit songs of Jermaine's brother,
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, so like Thriller and Bad you know whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that Jermaine had the authority to do,
Speaker 1: I guess not. Needless to say, the deal fell through.
Speaker 1: Um you know who else Rocan Corps started hanging out
Speaker 1: with around this time? Oh man, I don't even know.
Speaker 1: It's a grab bag. Harvey Kitel, I have no idea.
Speaker 1: Mickey Rourke, Oh my god. So they met at Barfly
Speaker 1: appropriately enough on Sunset Boulevard, right, huh Rocan Corps. He
Speaker 1: eventually moved into Nicky Rourk's house. Okay, and they are roomies. Um.
Speaker 1: It was at this point that Rokean Cort took a mistress,
Speaker 1: a topless model by the name of Ronda Ridel. So
Speaker 1: he's married to a playboy bunny and he is hooking
Speaker 1: up with Rhonda Ridel. So he convinces Ronda that he's
Speaker 1: French royalty, but with like a working man's soul. French royalty,
Speaker 1: that there is no the French Revolution got rid of that.
Speaker 1: She doesn't don't tell him, not a reader. She falls
Speaker 1: head over heel, of course, right, not, he's a prince.
Speaker 1: She also didn't know that Rocancorp had a wife at home,
Speaker 1: and oh, ps Pia Reus had a baby. So they
Speaker 1: have a wife, He has a wife and child. Of
Speaker 1: how these people are always fertile. Yeah, do you know
Speaker 1: what their child was named? I don't know what zeus.
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. So Ronda and Rocancor they're living this
Speaker 1: party lifestyle and it's just like two intoxicating. She can't
Speaker 1: help it. Oh, I want you to picture it. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's March nineteen ninety eight. It's about midnight and you're
Speaker 1: sitting on the patio of the Garden of Eden nightclub
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Labreya.
Speaker 1: The place opened last year and it is the place
Speaker 1: to see and be seen. You are loving the luxurious
Speaker 1: Moroccan decor, the candles, the fresh flowers. You can hear
Speaker 1: the dance floor a popping inside, and you're loving the
Speaker 1: people watching, like, what is that David Faustino over there? No,
Speaker 1: it just looks like them. But you know, you're pretty
Speaker 1: sure that Mickey Rourke is sitting at the next table,
Speaker 1: and you want to tell him that Angel Hart is
Speaker 1: one of your favorite movies, but you decide to sit
Speaker 1: back and let him enjoy his evening. Yeah, please deserves that.
Speaker 1: Mickey Rourke is sitting with a bunch of people. He's
Speaker 1: talking to one guy in particular. He's loud and he
Speaker 1: has the most incredible thick French accent. So you see
Speaker 1: some concern on the frenchman's face as he looks just
Speaker 1: beyond you. You turn to see where his gaze is
Speaker 1: landed and you catch sight of a very buff guy
Speaker 1: in a tight T shirt. Guy has a ponytail, so
Speaker 1: you know what he means business. Yeah, Roken Corp tells
Speaker 1: the guy take a picture out if we last longer.
Speaker 1: The buff guy says, it's free country poll or words
Speaker 1: to that effect. I'm just riffing here. Suddenly the buff
Speaker 1: guy stands up and threatens Roken Corps life. I won't
Speaker 1: repeat what he said, but it was colorful, Rourke. He
Speaker 1: moves to hold Roken cor back. You don't held back
Speaker 1: by Mickey Rourke. Yeah. And then the buff guy's pal
Speaker 1: they like they step in, They're like, no, man, it's
Speaker 1: not worth it. Um. So everything like dies down. People
Speaker 1: eventually head out to either go home or keep party
Speaker 1: going somewhere else. You just keep thinking about this guy's accent.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, just in your head, and the amount of
Speaker 1: hair care product that I just saw getting a fight,
Speaker 1: and like pseudo boxer because well, you know, and Rokean Corp.
Speaker 1: First came to the United States, he told people at
Speaker 1: Cafe Maurice he was a boxer. Of course, So yeah,
Speaker 1: it all works, oh of course, Mailer so and Mickey Rourke.
Speaker 1: So the next day you are weirdly craving French onion Sue,
Speaker 1: and you head to Cafe Maurice to sate that desire.
Speaker 1: As you're standing outside, you're waiting for your table for one,
Speaker 1: you see a giant black hummer pull up to the curb.
Speaker 1: What you don't know is that the hummer used to
Speaker 1: belong to Dodi Fayette. And it's just I told you
Speaker 1: it's a grab bag of Diana's boyfriend. Yeah, that due
Speaker 1: at that time was the recently deceased Egyptian film producer
Speaker 1: in paramour Diana, Princess of Wales. Dodi Fayette's son of
Speaker 1: billionaire owner of Herod's department store, Mohammed al Fayette. The
Speaker 1: man behind the wheel had a bit of an obsession
Speaker 1: with Dody. He tried to meet him a bunch of times,
Speaker 1: and even went to an open house when Dodie was
Speaker 1: selling his house in Malibu because he thought he'd be
Speaker 1: there and he could see him, which like that doesn't
Speaker 1: owners Right there after Doughty died in that Paris tunnel
Speaker 1: with Diana, the man behind the wheel somehow managed to
Speaker 1: buy that hummer what and it was tricked out too.
Speaker 1: The surveillance had surveillance cameras on the back. No, they
Speaker 1: weren't driving the hummer. They were It was like yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that the hummer was in La so Dodie dies and
Speaker 1: he's like, can I get in? Can I get in
Speaker 1: on that car? Because I love Dodie? I got you?
Speaker 1: And so it had surveillance cameras on the back like
Speaker 1: in the late nineties that wasn't common or cheat No, no, yeah.
Speaker 1: So the window of the hummer rolls down and you
Speaker 1: see that it's none other than the frenchman from last night,
Speaker 1: Christopher rokean Corp Kell coincidence. So he's about to shout
Speaker 1: a greeting to the major d who's like standing outside
Speaker 1: the door, when this black Mercedes five hundred pulls up.
Speaker 1: Who should exit that vehicle but the buff guy and
Speaker 1: his friends from last night? Oh no, crazy coincidence, Kell,
Speaker 1: crazy coincidence. Roken Corp and the Buff guy like lockeyes
Speaker 1: Roken Corp peels away from the curb and the fellas
Speaker 1: from last night jump back in the ben zone. Give chase.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, car Chase is on. What in the world?
Speaker 1: Who put a b in their bonnets? That's what you're
Speaker 1: thinking to yourself. Then you hear zaren party of one
Speaker 1: your table's read, so you go inside. You get delicious
Speaker 1: French onion soup, maybe some steak fried who knows the
Speaker 1: night is young Zarn. Meanwhile, Christopher Rocan cor He's like
Speaker 1: hall and tail down Las Siannega in SNL Californian's style.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you he went down Las Siannega and then
Speaker 1: he turned her right on Melrose, and then he made
Speaker 1: another right on San Vicente. Okay, see kind of know
Speaker 1: where he is. As he's watching the car in his
Speaker 1: rear video monitor, his mistress, Rhonda Rydell, calls him and
Speaker 1: he tells her, I am being chased by a car.
Speaker 1: It is full of are Arabs. Please calls it police,
Speaker 1: and so she's like, wait, the what and the what now?
Speaker 1: So here's rocan Cors. He's like being followed by a
Speaker 1: Mercedes of what he's describing as angry Arabs. He stops
Speaker 1: at the light at San Vicente and Santa Monica. The
Speaker 1: Mercedes pulls up next to him, and then suddenly a
Speaker 1: Hundai pulls up behind him. The man in the Hunday
Speaker 1: gets out. Ronda's still on the line at this point.
Speaker 1: She's like listening as Christopher sits in tense silence. Shots
Speaker 1: ring out, The car peels away and Roken court uninjured.
Speaker 1: He gets out of his car and he runs to
Speaker 1: the La County Sheriff West Hollywood station located Conely at
Speaker 1: that corner. Yeah, so they shot him in front of
Speaker 1: the Sheriff's station. Yeah. I mean it's huge. You can't
Speaker 1: miss it. No, or did they wait? So the cops
Speaker 1: go outside, they secure the scene. They find bullet holes
Speaker 1: in the hummer. Here's the problem. They came from inside
Speaker 1: the car. And then they also found a glock. So
Speaker 1: they searched local hospitals. They find the man in the hunday.
Speaker 1: He had a graze wound on his arm. Okay, so
Speaker 1: of course Roken Coort is brought in for questioning. When
Speaker 1: this sort of thing happens, the police don't just let
Speaker 1: it go, right, so they ran as information. They find
Speaker 1: out that he's wanted for passport fraud. Okay, what passport fraud?
Speaker 1: You say, what passport fraud? I said he held a
Speaker 1: valid US passport sort of. Do you remember Leah Bongo?
Speaker 1: Oh yes, okay, she and Roken Coort paid a couple
Speaker 1: of grand to two LA passport clerks in exchange for
Speaker 1: a passport for Rocan Corps who was not a citizen.
Speaker 1: So he has he has a fake passport from the
Speaker 1: actual passport agency. But he's got a fake American, fraudulent
Speaker 1: American passport. Yeah. So Rocan Corp's wife, Pia, she comes
Speaker 1: down to the station, so does his mistress, Randa, and
Speaker 1: that's where they found out about each other. In the
Speaker 1: of the police station. The Sheriff's department run like she's
Speaker 1: still in love with Roken Corps, but she ends the
Speaker 1: relationship because he's married. She had no clue up until
Speaker 1: that points a wholeman of great virtue. She is so
Speaker 1: Roken Corps. He caught gun charges for having the glock
Speaker 1: on top of the passport charges is bail is set
Speaker 1: at one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. He asked
Speaker 1: all of his pals, from Mickey Rourke to restauranturs to
Speaker 1: random wealthy investors he knew for bail money, no dice.
Speaker 1: None of them had the seventeen thousand five Pia was
Speaker 1: able to rustle most of it up and Rokean Corps
Speaker 1: is released. He's out on bail, which for him out
Speaker 1: of the area. He jumped bail in the wind. Where
Speaker 1: did he go? When we get back from this break,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. When we left off, Christopher Rocan Corps
Speaker 1: had skipped bail in LA and was in the wind completely.
Speaker 1: Where was the wind for Christopher Rocan car Let me guess,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking maybe we get Anabitha in this no New
Speaker 1: York City. Oh, he Pia and their son Zeus. They're
Speaker 1: living in a posh loft department in Lower Manhattan. Of
Speaker 1: course he's going big with his cons there. He gets
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy five thousand from this businessman who
Speaker 1: was an immigrant. He gets forty thousand dollars in merchandise
Speaker 1: from a store, He owes twenty thousand and back rent.
Speaker 1: He gets forty thousand from a store employee for a
Speaker 1: quote investment. He bought a building in Dumbo that Jay
Speaker 1: Z didn't want Dumbo, And so he seduces this wealthy
Speaker 1: woman and she gives him ninety grand in cash, and
Speaker 1: then he also steals two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: worth of jewelry from said wealthy woman. Who Yeah, But
Speaker 1: here's the thing is that like a lot of the
Speaker 1: really wealthy people that he was ripping off were so
Speaker 1: embarrassed by it and they didn't want their affairs made public.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't talk to the cops. They just let it go.
Speaker 1: I think we need to not skip over this point
Speaker 1: because we've heard this come up lots of time. People
Speaker 1: are like, I'll write off that one point five billion.
Speaker 1: This wouldn't even make a dent for her, this amount
Speaker 1: of money, whoever she was. So that's all well and good,
Speaker 1: but for real money, he knew where he had to go.
Speaker 1: The family now with an assistant named Dante Dan Yellow,
Speaker 1: who was calling himself Joseph but apparently had like a
Speaker 1: big stick like bronx accent, call me Joe um. They
Speaker 1: moved to the Hamptons, headed up there. So Rogan Corp.
Speaker 1: Is looking at properties to quote unquote buy, but like, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: he's taking the real estate agent for more than one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars on a fake stock tip, like, oh,
Speaker 1: we can invest the money. He's working his own real
Speaker 1: estate agent. Yes, yes, but he's not really looking to
Speaker 1: buy a hell I know, but he's just present to
Speaker 1: the real estate agent. It's so busy trying to call.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, I'll get in good with this wealthy guy.
Speaker 1: I'll get a huge commission. So it's at around that
Speaker 1: time that he starts introducing himself to people in the
Speaker 1: Hamptons by a new alias, Christopher Rockefeller. He had his
Speaker 1: quote unquote assistant quote screen as calls in front of people,
Speaker 1: either like accepting or declining calls from like aristocrats, Kennedy's celebrities.
Speaker 1: Um so like, oh, you know, we've got I don't know,
Speaker 1: some famous person on the line. Alanz, I'll call him,
Speaker 1: he said, the Hamptons. All right, I've got Dershowitz. And
Speaker 1: he's like, I'll call him back. This is what Jim
Speaker 1: Rockford used to do on the Rockford Fi TV. Rockefeller Rockford,
Speaker 1: I see a connection. So one day he's at the
Speaker 1: Easthampton Jim getting a massage as you do. He convinced
Speaker 1: the masseuse corene Ill Tink that he had a great
Speaker 1: investment opportunity that would triple her money. He's stealing from
Speaker 1: the massage. Yea, So she gives him fourteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: What the hell. He's just super charming. She's like, you
Speaker 1: know what, come hang out at my house. Like, I
Speaker 1: have a lot of cool people friends there. One of
Speaker 1: the friends is this Spanish painter named he Nez Saran Pagan.
Speaker 1: That's a Great Glos and then he and then another
Speaker 1: good friend of hers is this guy Kevin McCrary, So
Speaker 1: they'll come back to us, all right. Karin's father back
Speaker 1: in the Netherlands had a stroke, so she had to
Speaker 1: go out and fly and see him. But she wanted
Speaker 1: to use the investment opportunity from Rocan Cord to triple
Speaker 1: her entire savings because she's like, I'm going to need
Speaker 1: this money to take care of my dad. So she
Speaker 1: has one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars she wants
Speaker 1: to give it to Rocan Corp. To invest. So she
Speaker 1: calls up her friend McCrary and is like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: at the airport, you know, can you take this money,
Speaker 1: take it to Rocan Corp And like have him invested.
Speaker 1: He's like all right, fine. So McCrary meets up with
Speaker 1: Rocan Corps at Karin's house. Red flags a fly in
Speaker 1: all I hope. So, yeah, he's uncouth, Rocan Corps. He's tattooed,
Speaker 1: he's sloppy, and these are not the traits of a Rockefeller.
Speaker 1: Now generally, here's what McCrary told Vanity Fair quote. He
Speaker 1: set me off immediately. How could a Rockefeller be associated
Speaker 1: with such a bumbling fool. It didn't fit. Nothing fit.
Speaker 1: He's French. My family has known the Rockefellers for decades,
Speaker 1: Nelson David, We've known them for years. If there's one
Speaker 1: thing I know, it's growing up around money. He didn't
Speaker 1: feel like money. Wow, seriously. Yeah, So McCrary, he finds
Speaker 1: out that another friend of his had given Rocan cor
Speaker 1: money and he's just like, I rate, who, why are
Speaker 1: you guys trusting this man? So he tries to report
Speaker 1: it as a crime, but no crime had really taken
Speaker 1: place yet, because it's not like, you know, he had
Speaker 1: stolen something immediately. So meanwhile he nes Saran pagan Um.
Speaker 1: He's grown wise to Rokan I know, and I wish
Speaker 1: he could see it written out, because it's amazing. It
Speaker 1: looks like giants, Sarah Pagan, but it's he nes Saran
Speaker 1: pagan Um. So Sarah and Pagan. Uh. He doesn't go
Speaker 1: to the cops. He's wise to him. He doesn't go
Speaker 1: to the cops. He's an artist, a free thinker, a
Speaker 1: free spirit, a jokester. He was fascinated by Rocan Cory
Speaker 1: wanted to know more. This is what he later told
Speaker 1: The New York Times quote. I wanted in on his game.
Speaker 1: I liked him, but I knew he wasn't a Rockefeller
Speaker 1: as a con man. I'll give him an eight on
Speaker 1: what scale? So uh he nes he sets up a
Speaker 1: dinner party at his house. I'm sure the Hampton's has
Speaker 1: its share of weird dinner parties, but this is like
Speaker 1: got to be up there for it. He assembled an
Speaker 1: interesting and eclectic group. Pierre a peculiar art collector, Maria
Speaker 1: and Clia, daughters of a wealthy Greek shipping magnet. Okay,
Speaker 1: and not Suko, the daughter of a top executive at
Speaker 1: Sony International. Did Ryan Johnson write this pretty much? Go on,
Speaker 1: here's the thing though, they're all imposters. So Pierre is
Speaker 1: actually Peter Fazio, a local contractor. Maria was really Maria Etemides,
Speaker 1: the New York bureau chief at People magazine. Oh wow.
Speaker 1: Clia was a friend of hers and a jag lawyer. Lawyer,
Speaker 1: And then Notasuko Utsumi had no relation to anyone at
Speaker 1: Sony and was actually a photojournalist who was working on
Speaker 1: a book about African genital mutilation. I mean, you have
Speaker 1: to run that back. No, So Maria the journalist, she
Speaker 1: could not help herself, but quiz roken Corp on his
Speaker 1: lifestyle and the question she asked out more and more probing,
Speaker 1: like where do you live? How would you describe your house? Like?
Speaker 1: And as he's getting shorter and shorter, more and more
Speaker 1: terse like, she starts pressing him and then he Nez
Speaker 1: is like stop, like kicks round to the table. So
Speaker 1: most of the time, though Rokean Chords just held court.
Speaker 1: He's like waxing demi elegant on things like art, economics,
Speaker 1: the ladies. Do you think a good job? No? Imagine no,
Speaker 1: he was terrible. So at one point and he's like
Speaker 1: super pretentious about it. At one point he told Rokean
Speaker 1: Chord he was a genius and like this is and
Speaker 1: roken Cords like, what do you mean? And you know
Speaker 1: Einstein was a genius. I am but a simpleman. And
Speaker 1: this is what this is how he Nez relayed what
Speaker 1: he said to Vanity fair quote. A genius is a
Speaker 1: person who has control, who has no fear, he said.
Speaker 1: For the briefest moment their eyes met, and Pagan sense
Speaker 1: that some part of Rockefeller's elaborate mask had fallen away.
Speaker 1: Then he knew the artist speculates today he knew that
Speaker 1: I knew, and he knew I would keep his secret,
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't turn him in. Wow, so they're just
Speaker 1: like scammered, a scam. He knew that I knew that
Speaker 1: I knew that he knew. Also, his definition of genius
Speaker 1: would mean that both Evil Knevil and my neighbor Bob
Speaker 1: are both geniuses. Your point, Yeah, he's a low bar
Speaker 1: so McCrary though, he's not tickled by Roken Corp's deceptions
Speaker 1: the way that he nez is mccrary's I rate. So
Speaker 1: he keeps bugging the cops until they get a lead. Right,
Speaker 1: Rokean Court was not staying at a fancy summer home
Speaker 1: like he had everyone believing. Like he told people that
Speaker 1: he lived on whatever, like the fanciest street there was.
Speaker 1: He would name drop that and they're like, oh really,
Speaker 1: which one? Um, He's staying at a bed and breakfast
Speaker 1: and he hadn't paid the bill and he owed nineteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars kind of bed and breakfast I don't know.
Speaker 1: So he gets arrested and he provides an idea a
Speaker 1: passport that has the name faby In or Tuna, and
Speaker 1: so you know he's sitting there in jail, his attorney
Speaker 1: shows up, Bruce Cutler. I don't know if you know
Speaker 1: that name. That's John Gotti's familiar. Yeah. So the next
Speaker 1: day post forty five thousand dollars casha, no, post forty
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars cash bond, and once again in the
Speaker 1: wind Man. So it wasn't until after he's out on
Speaker 1: bail that the police ran his prince are you kidding me,
Speaker 1: Sleepy Hampton's so oh, there's all the mess in La Rome,
Speaker 1: Hong Kong like understuff in exactly, so he's getting around.
Speaker 1: Roken Corps wasn't totally off the radar, though. He reached
Speaker 1: out via third parties to talk to the media while
Speaker 1: he was on the run. He told the New York
Speaker 1: Times quote, I would not consider myself a criminal. I
Speaker 1: steal with my mind. If I take things. If that's
Speaker 1: your definition of a criminal, then I am a criminal.
Speaker 1: If they catch me, I will make no deal. I
Speaker 1: will do my time. I steal in my mind. This
Speaker 1: is more of what he told the Time quote. I've
Speaker 1: never killed anyone, he said. I don't believe in taking
Speaker 1: another life. It is the ultimate sin. He said. He
Speaker 1: felt no remorse for his actions, just pity for his victims.
Speaker 1: I feel sorry for their greed, he said, I'm not laughing.
Speaker 1: There's nothing funny about stupidity. Would he be caught? That
Speaker 1: is in the hands of God, he said, So there
Speaker 1: we go. Damn. He insults his marks. He says, he's
Speaker 1: not about me. They're stupid and greedy and if anybody's
Speaker 1: gonna come after me, it's God, and right, I ain't
Speaker 1: listen to another. Wise, where is he when he's getting
Speaker 1: all emotional with the press. This is amazing Canada. He
Speaker 1: went to Canada. So he and his family they made
Speaker 1: their way to British Columbia. They ditched the assistant. It's
Speaker 1: just Himpia and zeus that there they meet this businessman
Speaker 1: named Robert Baldock, and Rocancourt tells Baldock that he's actually
Speaker 1: Michael van Hoven, Formula one racer for Ferrari. It's like, sure,
Speaker 1: of course, yeah, And he's like, you know, I make
Speaker 1: twenty eight in a year. It's a pretty cool gig.
Speaker 1: You know, do what you love. You never work a
Speaker 1: day in your life. And so he said, you know,
Speaker 1: what do you do, Baldoc? He's like, well, I own
Speaker 1: this medical diagnostic company. He's like, Fontastique, they give you
Speaker 1: five million to invest. Baldock's like, oh okay. So he's like,
Speaker 1: I'll transfer the five million to you. And in the meantime,
Speaker 1: like Baldoc and this wife, they're just showering him with gifts.
Speaker 1: They give him a suite at this luxury hotel resort,
Speaker 1: they give him a Rolex. Baldoc goes to Switzerland in
Speaker 1: order to complete the transfer of funds. Okay, he did
Speaker 1: this a few times because it never took So he
Speaker 1: goes to Switzerland because in person to pick up money. Essentially,
Speaker 1: he goes to UBSA, Switzerland, and it's like I have
Speaker 1: There's all this confusion, like he's showing up. They're like, oh,
Speaker 1: do you want to open account? He's like no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to take stuff. I don't know what was
Speaker 1: wrong with everybody involved. How do these rich people have
Speaker 1: this money? Like they're so irresponsible and like casual about it.
Speaker 1: It seems like money is really leased. He does this
Speaker 1: a bunch of times. He goes over there, and every
Speaker 1: time Rokean Coors like, oh, you know what, it didn't
Speaker 1: go through because I don't know the fates do not know,
Speaker 1: and then he flies over again. Yeah, he's like, well
Speaker 1: try it again, like next week, come back and then
Speaker 1: try again. So the Balldocks they'd had enough. I hope
Speaker 1: they go to the cops. They go to the Mounties. Yes,
Speaker 1: Rokan Corp gets arrested and charged with fraud. He pleads guilty,
Speaker 1: and then he also pleads guilty to the charges in
Speaker 1: LA and New York. P said she had absolutely no
Speaker 1: idea what was going on, didn't have part of the scheme.
Speaker 1: I don't really believe that, but they let her go. Huh,
Speaker 1: she doesn't get charged. Rokeancorp did a year in a
Speaker 1: Canadian prison, and while he was there he did what
Speaker 1: all our favorite criminals do, not make toilet wine, but
Speaker 1: rather he wrote a book. Of course, it's what you
Speaker 1: do in prison. It has an amazing title, I Christopher
Speaker 1: rokean corps, orphan playboy prisoner. That's the title. Huh so good. So,
Speaker 1: after finishing his time in Canada, he gets sent to
Speaker 1: Brooklyn to face federal charge. Is on eleven counts of fraud. Okay,
Speaker 1: felony counts. So now he's actually facing something. Yeah, his
Speaker 1: lawyer didn't request bail. He pled guilty because I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know how it is, but I imagine a
Speaker 1: Canadian prison is from what I've seen, is kind of
Speaker 1: like the some of the northern European prisons, like in
Speaker 1: Sweden and Denmark. And it's basically like, oh, you got
Speaker 1: a free hotel room and some space to write. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I would hope so I honestly. But still
Speaker 1: in October two thousand and three, he gets sentenced to
Speaker 1: three years and ten months, so forty what is it?
Speaker 1: Forty six months in jail plus one point three million
Speaker 1: in restitution, and he gets ordered to pay seventy five
Speaker 1: percent of any profits from telling his life story, whether
Speaker 1: a movie or a book, sure to pay back the victims.
Speaker 1: The judge, the Honorable Charles Sifton, had this to say, quote,
Speaker 1: the likelihood that people are going to take seriously anything
Speaker 1: he says or rely on it in the future is
Speaker 1: rather slim. Yeah, but it'll still sell books, huh. So
Speaker 1: he gets released in two thousand and seven, sent back
Speaker 1: to France. Much like our pal Elmir de Hori. His
Speaker 1: social currency was only enhanced behind like by his time behind. Yes,
Speaker 1: of course, so he starts dating Sonya Roland. The former
Speaker 1: Miss France. What In two thousand and seven Want you know?
Speaker 1: Two thousand and seven, he meets French filmmaker Kathleen Bleia.
Speaker 1: She asked him to be in a movie that she
Speaker 1: was making called Bad Love, and it was based upon
Speaker 1: a novel that she wrote. The star of the movie
Speaker 1: Naomi Campbell, pulling all the nineties names two and seven
Speaker 1: and that's how he found himself on the red carpet
Speaker 1: at Con as the date of of Naomi Campbell Leyeah.
Speaker 1: She also gave him money to write a screen pay
Speaker 1: about his life. Do you get the idea that him
Speaker 1: being handsome is really a big boy and he's sort
Speaker 1: of in that handsome like that who's the French actor
Speaker 1: of Vincent gall No, the French one Vincent. He's kind
Speaker 1: of like that where it's like he's not traditionally handsome,
Speaker 1: but you can see it. I think that guys can
Speaker 1: traditionally handsome. But I mean, I don't think traditionally he
Speaker 1: doesn't look like all those weird like frat boy, cookie
Speaker 1: cutter American act Oh oh yeah, but I was in
Speaker 1: bring like French, right, I think he's handsome, but it's
Speaker 1: like I think I could see how people wouldn't and
Speaker 1: so that's kind of imagine him. I think he's handsome
Speaker 1: this one, but you can also see like in some
Speaker 1: pictures where maybe people wouldn't conventionally here okay, because you
Speaker 1: remember you said he started as a model. I was
Speaker 1: wondering if that's why it's always helping the people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but not in the model he was very much in
Speaker 1: like the kind of c k one, Calvin Clin, like
Speaker 1: Calvin Klein like, um, I don't know, it's just that
Speaker 1: he doesn't he didn't have like the traditional model looks. Um,
Speaker 1: So he's getting money to write a screenplay about his
Speaker 1: life Byah also loaned him more than six hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand euros for various projects and things. By July
Speaker 1: of two thousand and nine, she was fed up, and
Speaker 1: she published a book accusing him of taking advantage of
Speaker 1: her diminished mental capacity following a stroke that she had
Speaker 1: in two thousand and four. The book, called Abuse of Weakness,
Speaker 1: was eventually made into a filming Isabelle Hupair. In twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: rocan Cor was arrested for defrauding Bryat and did some
Speaker 1: time in prison. A twenty fourteen he gets arrested again,
Speaker 1: this time for bribing a police officer to supply him
Speaker 1: with passports to end visas to sell at outrageous prices
Speaker 1: to illegal immigrants. Yeah, so I don't know what he's
Speaker 1: up to now exactly. He's written seven books in total.
Speaker 1: He has an Instagram account Chris rokan cor O f
Speaker 1: like official just thirty two thousand followers. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of pictures of him living a really super elegant lifestyle.
Speaker 1: He's like sitting in a beach chair on a cold dale,
Speaker 1: bundled up with the caption life is a storm worth
Speaker 1: living to the fullest. But it's in French, too tired
Speaker 1: to butcher that it's very much like a Kendall roy
Speaker 1: look book his Instagram account, or rather the unknown Roy
Speaker 1: brother we didn't know we needed on succession makes sense.
Speaker 1: He's like the It's like as stint as a Rockefeller
Speaker 1: roy Um. So there he is. Check him out, Zarin,
Speaker 1: what's your ridiculous takeaway? Man? I used to think Mickey
Speaker 1: Rourke was pretty cool, but now I'm wondering is if
Speaker 1: he could hang out with this? Do have wild Mickey
Speaker 1: Rourke stories that I cannot share Everything that I've heard
Speaker 1: from friends in La and I'm just gonna leave it
Speaker 1: at that. Terrible things that I can't share really like bad,
Speaker 1: like bad bad, or like bad like weird bad weird.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, and I'm gonna I'm just gonna tease
Speaker 1: that and leave it. I just always found him peculiar,
Speaker 1: starting from when he wanted to be a boxer. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, that dude's not right. I love it.
Speaker 1: So I always paid attention to him. And he's also smart.
Speaker 1: I mean he's like, he's charismatic, he's interesting, he's curious,
Speaker 1: a lot of the things I really respect in a person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but also he's just so uniquely him that I was like,
Speaker 1: I like to think that inside of there there is
Speaker 1: some like not I don't say goodness. I'm not measuring
Speaker 1: his soul, but I mean like something some spark of
Speaker 1: like real raw humanity and like like a flame of
Speaker 1: not like a pure spirit, but like an artistic spirit,
Speaker 1: which I understand he's gonna hurt, hurt people think he
Speaker 1: was malicious people. I don't want that. I don't think
Speaker 1: he was ever taken by Rokean Corps. And I think
Speaker 1: it was just like an interesting thing to so maybe
Speaker 1: Roken Corp helped take care of those chihuahuas he carries, Sure,
Speaker 1: and I can see him. I mean, he's gonna have
Speaker 1: weird friends, you know, so I imagine his quartier. You
Speaker 1: are just all kinds of weird friends. But like this
Speaker 1: is like I just would expect or I guess exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's your ridiculous takeaway, Elizabeth? My ridiculous takeaway is that
Speaker 1: if you can go through things with a ridiculous accent
Speaker 1: and really like carry yourself like you know what you're
Speaker 1: doing and you're you're above it all, you can get
Speaker 1: away with whatever. Certainly from expial. Well, that is it
Speaker 1: for today. Excellent. Oh. You can find us online at
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime, about Twitter for the talking, Instagram for the go.
Speaker 1: Can email us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com,
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Speaker 1: in next time. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton
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