Catch him if you can

Mike Taibbi Correspondent • Profile • E-mail

On a grey October morning, behind the tinted windows of a nondescript van leaving Allenwood federal prison in Pennsylvania, sat a man who was used to traveling in stretch limos or anything that spelled “first class.”  Usually, the man traveled in vehicles that made others say, “That guy’s gotta be a VIP.”

In fact, the French-born character often hinted at how important he was: “Rockefeller,” he’d say when asked his name, adding quickly and casually— “But please, call me Christopher.”

Rhonda Rydell, former girlfriend: One word’s not enough for him. He’s powerful. He just walked into the room, and everyone at the table, who were high, influential people, were like “Oh, that’s Christopher. Christopher’s here.”

"Christopher Rockefeller" was a name that seemed to say it all—  a name that seemed to open all the right doors in the summer of 2000 when the 38-year-old Frenchman swept throughout New York’s Hamptons summer playground to the rich and famous.

And when Christopher Rockefeller burst onto the scene, the new money wannabes were thrilled to be rubbing elbows with an old money name.

Hamptons radio gossip show host, Dr. Henri Bernard: Someone said to me, "Have you heard there’s a Rockefeller out and about out in the Hamptons?" And that this guy was a French Rockefeller.

Even in the image-conscious Hamptons, Christopher, who always had a gorgeous woman on his arm, still made an impression both with his name and with his money. On a whim, he would charter a chopper to race him out to a seaside estate he said he was thinking of buying.  He was so rich, he could get away with his favorite uniform— jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap worn backwards— even in the fanciest places.

Shamin Abbas, club manager: We’re used to dealing with a lot of big spenders and flashy people and high rollers, and he carried himself a little differently.

Shamin Abbas managed a club where Christopher was a regular. She says once he told people his last name, he didn’t have to say much more.

The young Rockefeller soon became a magnet for the social and financial ambitions of many in the Hamptons.

Bernard: And you say “Aahh, a Rockefeller, Gee, a Rockefeller. Maybe he’ll take me to dinner.”

And that’s exactly what he did when he met Kim Curry and her fiance.  His new friends became his frequent dinner guests at lavish feasts in the latest Hamptons hot spots.

Kim Curry: When we walked in, as soon as we mentioned we were with "Christopher Rockefeller", they were like “Oh, right this way!”

The tabs topped out at thousands of dollars. Christopher always picked up the bill and always paid cash. The bubbly flowed, as did Christopher’s non-stop chatter about his incredibly fabulous world.

Curry: He owned an estate in East Hampton. He had jets, he had yachts, he had women coming from Monaco… and the cellphones were going off—the Kennedys are on the line, and Prince Albert was in that weekend.

The conversation invariably turned to money and whether he had any money making tips for his guests. Christopher had plenty, and even offered his dinner partners a great investment deal.

Curry: I thought, okay, he’s a Rockefeller.

Kim Curry and her fiancé, who had taken a hit in the stock market that summer, were thrilled. Christopher told them the deal was simple— they put up some money, he would invest it, they would get a tenfold profit guaranteed. So they ponied up the $50,000.

Curry: The way he presented it was this, “You give me $50,000, I will invest this money, I will in turn give you 500,000 back.”

Mike Taibbi, Dateline correspondent: And when would your fiance and you get this $500,000?

Curry: Immediately.

It was Kim’s friend Corrine Eeltink who’d first met the young Rockefeller at a Hamptons gym, noticing that last name and that he’d signed the register with a Fifth Avenue address.

And when Corrine was invited to one of Christopher’s lavish dinners, he’d invited her to make a similar investment — the same sort of terms and the same knockout payoff.

Corrine Eeltink: We’ll start right today with $25,000 investment.

Taibbi: How much did he say you would make with your $25,000 investment?

Eeltink: Around a million and up, in over like three months.

Corrine bought in too. Christopher also promised millions to a real estate agent who showed him a $9 million oceanfront estate in the Hamptons. The realtor was so impressed she gave the French Rockefeller $100,000 of her own savings to invest.

The buzz about it all was impossible to suppress.

Bernard: I heard something else later in the summer about this guy. This woman came in and said “Oh she had heard about a great investment…”

And so he swept through the Hamptons like the hottest fashion of the season: a Rockefeller promising a golden end to the summer for the chosen few.

Bernard: You can be anything you want to be out here if you have enough money.

But even before Labor day, the glimmer had begun to tarnish. Despite the generosity he displayed at his intoxicating soirees,  something didn’t seem quite right about Christopher Rockefeller, and people began to ask questions.

Kevin McCrary also wined and dined at Christopher Rockefeller’s table but he passed on making any investments. He wondered, “Why is this Rockefeller coming across with this French accent?”

Instead, McCrary’s suspicions led him to the Internet to check out Christopher Rockefeller.

Kevin McCrary: Yes, there was a Christopher Rockefeller. But there was one slight discrepancy— that Rockefeller died in 1790.

Then, by Labor day weekend, as quickly as Christopher Rockefeller had descended on the Hamptons, he was gone.

And it wasn’t long before those who gave money to the Frenchman with the blue blood name learned the details of his past— details that would shock even the most jaded of the jet set.

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