Catch him if you can

And so it was in the summer of 2000, while he was on the run from the law in L.A. that Christopher arrived in the Hamptons. It was for this limited-run performance that he borrowed the name Christopher Rockefeller, a Rockefeller who ended up conning all those Hamptonites. It also turns out his game almost ended there too, when he was thrown in jail for not paying a $20,000-hotel bill.

East Hampton police Sgt. Margaret Dunn and, her partner, Lt. Jerry Larsen got the case.

Mike Taibbi, Dateline correspondent: What did he say when you said, ‘You know we’ve got a couple of people downstairs saying you stiffed them for some big dough...”

Lt. Jerry Larsen, East Hampton police: All a big misunderstanding. He has plenty of money the money’s all available to be wired, he’d be more than happy to pay the bill.

Once again, Christopher talked his way out of a jam.

The East Hampton cops ran their prisoner’s fingerprints to check for outstanding warrants in New York State. There weren’t any. But they didn’t do a nationwide check, so with only the innkeeper’s complaint on the record, bail was set at $45,000. 

Det. Margaret Dunne: He had posted his $45,000 bail, and he fled. That was the last we saw of him.

It was only after Christopher disappeared that the story of the phony Rockefeller spread like wildfire and made for sensational headlines: That’s when the local police found out Christopher was a fugitive and wanted in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles detective George Mueller was not surprised to learn of Christopher’s latest exploits and expected he would soon be up to his old tricks again.

Det. George Mueller, Los Angeles police: The games not done, he still wants to play that game... and he needs that, he thrives on that, and he wants it.

The question was, where would Christopher wind up next?

The answer: Canada
It was April, 2001, eight months after he ducked out of the Hamptons that Christopher defrauded an elderly couple of at least $100,000 in a real estate deal. The Canadian Mounties got the man everyone was looking for, arresting Christopher at a seaside hotel.

Cpl. Grant Learned, Royal Canadian Mountain Police: A single charge of fraud relating to business transactions and financing schemes.

It turns out Christopher had fled straight to Canada from his sojourn in the Hamptons, taking up residence in Vancouver, British Columbia. There, he told the elderly couple he later swindled that he claimed to be a famous race car driver looking to make money in real estate.  

He was arrested by the Mounties along with a woman named Pia Reyes. It turns out Pia Reyes was in fact Christopher’s long-time wife, a wife who claimed then and thereafter that she never knew anything about her husband’s con games. 

Canadian authorities believed her enough to drop all charges against her. Two months before Christopher’s arrest in Canada, while he was still on the run, Dateline interviewed Pia.

At the time she told us that unlike the others who saw her husband as a con man, Pia believed he would return to the U.S. and make it all right again.

Pia Reyes: I would hope he will make restitution, yes. And say 'Thanks everybody, I had a good time!' And pay everybody back.

Even though Christopher had initially left her and their 5-year-old son in the U.S. while he fled to Canada, loyalty, for Pia, dies hard.

Taibbi: You still love him, don't you?

Reyes: Sure.

Taibbi: You still forgive him everything, don't you?

Reyes: Yes. 

At the time, we pressed her about what she did know about her con man husband...

Was she just another victim of his lies and deceit?

Taibbi: What did he tell you he did?

Pia Reyes, Christopher's wife: A businessman.

Taibbi: Did he go into any greater detail than than?

Reyes: No.

Taibbi: When you married Christopher, were you absolutely confident that you knew enough about this man?

Reyes: I didn’t know every detail, no.

Reyes, a former Playboy playmate, acted in a few Hollywood “B” movies but eventually wound up as a hostess in an upscale LA bistro. That’s where she met Christopher in 1995. 

But Pia learned early on that life with Christopher could change in a heartbeat. Just four months after meeting, they went to Las Vegas, where they did not leave the tables as winners.

Reyes: I think we had 31 cents left so...

Taibbi: You lost all the money that you had between the two of you, gambling?

Reyes: Yes.  We had nothing... so we got married.

Taibbi: So you thought it was possible, that this guy that you'd fallen in love with, that he could be flush one day and flat broke, 31 cents, to his name the next?

Reyes: Yeah, that's it. But like I said, he has ambition and, you know, he can make money.

That he could. Unbelievably, a few months later they were living in Beverly Hills, and they weren't down and out. Christopher had paid cash up front for a 3-bedroom suite in the lushest hotel in the city, the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

She bore him a son named Zeus, but says that throughout their 8-year marriage, she asked few questions.

Taibbi: Did he tell you he was rich?

Reyes: He didn’t tell me was rich, but he always had high life.

Reyes says she never got the “hows” or “whys” of her husband’s business, but that she learned early on and came to accept that life with her quirky husband could and often did change names when the need suited him.

Reyes: Really, he just would wake up one day and use it. He would just pick a name—and I would just shake my head. It’s almost like completely ridiculous to use the name Rockefeller. I mean how can you believe someone that has a French accent with an American historical name?

Finally in Canada, Christopher ran our of great escapes. He eventually pleaded guilty to scamming that elderly couple in Vancouver and agreed to return to the U.S. Here, he also entered guilty pleas to the L.A. charges of gun possession and to bribing passport officials —and to fraud charges in the Hamptons.

His sentence was 5 years in prison and court-ordered restitution of $1.2 million dollars to the few victims who came forward.

Det. George Mueller: I do believe Christopher got a pretty good deal.

Too good a deal, says Mueller, who’d pursued Christopher for years.

Det. Mueller: I believe he probably defrauded closer probably to $5 million. But there are a lot more victims out there and a lot of people that just haven’t come forward because of the embarrassment to them.

And so who was he really, this man of a thousand names?

His given name was Christopher, but his family name certainly was not "Rockefeller" — not by a long shot: his real name?

Det. Mueller:  His name was Christopher Rocancourt.

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