Famous Russian scammers. Catch me if you can: the most famous scammers in human history. Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin
Photo from fedpress.ru
Sometimes fraud becomes not just a way to make money, but a way of life. Famous businessmen and adventurers masterfully transform themselves, changing their name, profession and biography. The more talented the swindler, the more risky enterprises he undertakes, fooling scientists and millionaires, misleading entire companies and even cities. Thus, two brothers from Odessa fooled art critics from the Louvre, and the deceiver Joseph Weil fooled Benito Mussolini himself. "Pravo.ru" will tell you about the 10 most famous scammers in the world.
Victor Lustig: the fraudster who sold the Eiffel Tower
Victor Lustig pulled off his first scam in 1910, when he was 20 years old. He demonstrated to a potential buyer a compact machine he had designed for printing counterfeit hundred-dollar bills, explaining that its only drawback was its low productivity - one bill in six hours. After a successful demonstration, a deal was made: Lustig received $30,000, and the client took away the miracle machine. The young swindler immediately got ready to leave, because he knew well what would happen next: the device he had invented, instead of the next bill, would give the fooled buyer a blank sheet of paper - the machine itself was fake, and the demonstration hundred-dollar bills were genuine.
However, Lustig's most famous scam took place 15 years later, when the next renovation of the Eiffel Tower was planned in Paris. Lustig took advantage of this, prepared false documents for himself in the name of a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, who was in charge of the tower, and sent out invitations to the five largest scrap iron dealers. During a personal meeting, Lustig told the entrepreneurs who responded that the Eiffel Tower was dilapidated and posed a threat to the residents of Paris and its guests, so the city authorities decided to dispose of it. And since such a step could cause public outrage, he is authorized to hold a closed auction for the contract to dismantle the tower. When the buyer wrote Lustig a check for 250,000 francs, the fraudster cashed the money and fled the country (see " ").
Wilhelm Voigt - false officer who captured the town hall
In 1906, unemployed illegal immigrant Wilhelm Voigt bought a used Prussian army captain's uniform in the Berlin suburb of Köpenick and headed to the local barracks in it. There he met four grenadiers and a sergeant, whom he ordered to follow him to the city hall in order to arrest the burgomaster and treasurer. The soldiers did not dare to disobey the officer and unquestioningly carried out his orders. Wilhelm Voigt announced to officials that they were detained for theft of public funds, and all available money was confiscated as evidence in the case. Having ordered the soldiers to guard the detainees, Voigt went with the treasury to the station, where he tried to hide.
After 10 days, the fraudster was caught and sentenced to 4 years in prison. A couple of years later, the story reached Wilhelm II and amused the Kaiser so much that he released the swindler by his personal decree. In 1909, a book was written about this amazing event, and a little later a film was made and a play was staged. Today, on the steps of the Köpenick town hall, there is a bronze statue of the legendary “captain”. Voigt retired as a wealthy man.
Bronze statue of Wilhelm Voigt at the Köpenick town hall, copyright unterwegsinberlin.de
Joseph Whale: the swindler who deceived Mussolini
Joseph Whale was such a famous swindler of the 20th century that he even had the nickname “the king of swindlers.” One day Joseph learned that the Munsi National Bank of Commerce was moving to a new location. So he rented an empty house, hired a group of fake clerks and fake clients, and went on a wild banking spree. The whole show was made for the sake of one local millionaire, who was offered to buy plots of land for a quarter of their price. While the client was waiting for the owner of the bank, he observed queues at the cash desks, workers with piles of papers, security guards, and listened to telephone conversations. The owner of the bank met the buyer tired and dissatisfied, but still allowed himself to be persuaded into a deal. Imagine the millionaire’s surprise when he discovered that the contract for the purchase of land turned out to be a fake, and literally the next day there was no trace left of the bank!
It is interesting that one of the victims of Joseph Whale was Benito Mussolini himself, who bought the right to develop deposits in Colorado from the swindler. When the intelligence services discovered the deception, Wale managed to escape with $2 million. The swindler was in and out of prison several times, and in total lived 101 years.
Frank Abagnale: ex-FBI rogue
You can learn about the scams of our contemporary Frank Abagnale Jr. from the film “Catch Me If You Can.” For those who haven't seen this movie, we'll tell you. Frank Abagnale discovered his talent for forging checks at age 16. After some time, his counterfeit checks totaling $2.5 million were in circulation in 26 countries around the world. Having obtained a fake license and uniform as a Pan Am pilot, Abagnale cashed them out around the world at the expense of the airline, which provided its pilots with free flights.
After nearly being detained by police at the New Orleans airport, Frank Abagnailln began posing as a pediatrician. Unlike the “pilot,” who had never flown an aircraft, Abagnale actually spent some time in charge of the children’s ward of a hospital in Georgia. Another Abagnale mask is an employee of the Louisiana Attorney General's office. He got the job after passing an aptitude test. It is significant that Abagnale had neither a medical nor a legal education, and the Harvard University diploma that he presented turned out to be a fake.
In April 1971, the Virginia Supreme Court sentenced Abagnale to 12 years in prison. But the FBI decided to use his unique criminal experience to combat fraud and identify counterfeits and offered Abagnale cooperation. Thanks to this, he was released after serving only a third of his prison term. Abagnale is now an official millionaire. He has a wife and three sons, one of whom works for the FBI, and the agent who was chasing him became his best friend (see "").
Frank Abagnale Jr., copyright holder of wikimedia.org
Ferdinand Demara: a talented doctor without medical education
Mary Baker, Princess of Caraboo
Another fraudster, Mary Baker, did not pursue great material benefits either. She appeared in Gloucestershire in 1817 in exotic clothes, with a turban on her head, climbed trees, sang strange songs and even swam naked. On top of everything else, the girl spoke a language unknown to anyone. First, the stranger settled with the magistrate, then in the hospital.
One day, the Portuguese sailor Manuel Einesso said that he understood her speech. He translated that the girl was Princess Karabu from an island in the Indian Ocean, she was captured by pirates, but their ship was soon wrecked and only she managed to escape. This news fueled interest in the stranger. However, after her portrait appeared in the local newspaper, a townswoman recognized her as the daughter of a shoemaker.
The court sent the impostor to Philadelphia as punishment, but there the woman again tried to fool the residents with her story about the mysterious princess. Baker's biography formed the basis of the film "Princess Caraboo."
Mary Baker as Princess Caraboo, photo from kulturologia.ru
Founder of MMM Sergey Mavrodi
In 1993, the MMM cooperative, founded by Sergei Mavrodi, issued securities. Soon MMM became the largest financial pyramid in the history of Russia, in which 10-15 million people participated. Contributions to MMM accounted for a total of a third of the country's budget.
On August 4, 1994, MMM stock prices increased 127 times their original value. Some experts believe that at that time Mavrodi earned about $50 million a day in Moscow alone.
When the pyramid collapsed, millions of people lost their savings. According to various estimates, the total amount of losses he caused ranges from $110 million to $80 billion. Mavrodi himself was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison.
The Gokhman scam, or how merchants from Odessa defrauded the Louvre
The Gokhman brothers lived in Odessa in the 19th century. They owned an antique shop, which often sold fakes along with real historical values. However, the Gokhmans dreamed of big money, so they decided to organize a truly unprecedented event. In 1896, they sold the unique tiara of the Scythian king Saitafarnes to the Louvre for 200,000 francs. For seven years the whole world came to Paris to see the miracle, and in the eighth year the outrageous artist and sculptor from Montmartre Ellin Mayens exposed the fake. Despite this, the swindlers were never brought to justice (see "").
The fake tiara of the Scythian king Saitafarnes, which was in the Louvre for many years,photo from faberge-museum.de
"Jacks of Hearts"
The group of swindlers “Jacks of Hearts,” as they called themselves, was formed in 1867 in Moscow, led by Pavel Speer. Their first big scam involved insurance. Fraudsters sent numerous chests of ready-made linen throughout Russia, valuing each at 950 rubles. and taking out insurance. Insurance receipts were issued on stamped paper and were accepted by banks as collateral for loans along with bills of exchange. While the parcels at their final destinations were waiting for their recipients, who never showed up, the scammers cashed the receipts. When the “Russian Society of Marine, River and Land Insurance and Transportation of Luggage” opened the parcels, they found several boxes nested inside each other like a nesting doll, the last of which contained a carefully packed book “Memories of Empress Catherine the Second on the occasion of the opening of a monument to her.” .
However, the loudest scam of the Jacks of Hearts was the sale of the house of the Moscow Governor-General (Tverskaya St., 13). Speer managed to gain the trust of the general, and he happily agreed to lend his house for a day so that Speer could show it to an English lord he knew (the prince himself and his family were out of town at that time). Upon his return, the prince found a lord in his house with servants unloading belongings: it turned out that Speer not only showed the house, but also sold it for 100,000 rubles. The notary's bill of sale turned out to be fake, and the notary himself could not be found.
The general took revenge on Speer, and soon almost all members of the Jacks of Hearts gang were arrested and brought to justice. Of the 48 swindlers involved in the case, 36 belonged to the highest aristocracy. The main organizers were sent to hard labor, the performers were sent to prison companies, and only a few escaped with large fines.
Count de Toulouse-Latrec, aka Cornet Savin
At the beginning of the 20th century, cornet Nikolai Savin arrives in San Francisco, rents the best hotel apartments and introduces himself to everyone as Count de Toulouse-Latrec. He gives interviews in which he talks about a special task of the Russian government - to find good American industrialists in order to supply materials for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Trusting entrepreneurs literally stand in line to meet the “count” and present him with a valuable gift so that he will put in a good word for them. After traveling around California and collecting decent capital, Toulouse-Latrec disappeared along with big money and hopes for a solid contract.
Savin then moved to Rome, where the War Ministry announced its desire to renew its equestrian park. There he played the role of a major Russian horse breeder, and successfully: the government quickly concluded a supply agreement with him. Having taken the advance, Savin disappeared. In the capital of Bulgaria he was already received as Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. The fraudster was so convincing that he was offered nothing less than to take the throne. If it weren’t for the Sofia hairdresser, who personally cut Prince Konstantin’s hair and identified the impostor, most likely this scam would have been a success. Another bold move by Savin was the sale of the Winter Palace to a rich American. The scheme used was the same as that of the Jacks of Hearts. The February Revolution played into Savin’s hands - due to the anarchy that reigned in the country at that time, no one began to report to the police.
The article uses the book by V. A. Gilyarovsky “Cornet Savin”, materials from the magazines “Cultorology.rf”, “Law of Time”, “About Business”, “School of Life”, “Magmen’s”, “Favorites”, as well as from other open sources.
There is no reason to love swindlers, but some of them achieve such perfection and have such a sophisticated mind that you can’t help but fall in love. Outstanding swindlers are talented people with unconventional morals. Their stories are like adventure films.
If you can’t find decent people, follow the swindler - he will lead you to them.
When meeting swindlers, we do not feel delighted. Of course, anyone can fall into their network, but it’s difficult to get out of the trap with honor. Fraudsters are so smart and inventive in their crimes that, upon closer examination, they evoke involuntary admiration.
They talk about the most clever ones with aspiration after many years, marveling at the subtlety and thoughtfulness of the scams. We will tell you about ten famous scammers who have gone down in human history.
10. George Psalmanazar
Its history dates back to the distant eighteenth century. The years of this man's life are 1679-1763. In 1700, Psalmanazar came to Northern Europe and declared himself to be the first inhabitant of the island of Formosa to visit Europe. He was dressed like a European, and he looked the part, but he said that the Formosan aborigines had captured him and spoke in great detail about their culture and customs.
The interest of Europeans in these depictions inspired Psalmanazar so much that he published a book about Formosa. Listeners and readers listened with open mouths to stories about how naked islanders eat their unfaithful wives, although they usually eat snakes, hang murderers upside down, and sacrifice 18 thousand young men every year.
In his book, George Psalmanazar even cited the unique alphabet of the Formosan inhabitants. His stories were so convincing that Psalmanazar was asked to give lectures about the island. Soon the deceiver got bored with this story, and in 1706 he admitted that he had made it all up.
9. Wilhelm Voigt
The famous captain from Köpenick organized the seizure of the city hall near Berlin on October 16, 1906. An unemployed shoemaker dressed himself in a rented Prussian army captain's uniform and elegantly robbed the municipal treasury of the city of Köpenick. Without any special frills, he stopped four grenadiers and a sergeant on the street and ordered the burgomaster and treasurer to be taken into custody.
The order was carried out without hesitation, and the swindler could only gut 4,000 marks and 70 pfennigs from the cash register. Neither the soldiers nor the burgomaster resisted Voigt's commands. Leaving the soldiers at the post for another half hour, the swindler went to the station, boarded the train, changed clothes and was ready to disappear among the other passengers, but something went wrong, and he was nevertheless arrested. Voigt was sentenced to four years in prison, but served only two of them. In 1908, the Kaiser of Germany ordered the swindler to be released early.
8. Mary Baker
When a young lady wearing exotic clothes and a turban, speaking an incomprehensible language, arrived in Gloucestershire in 1817, the British tried to understand her by turning to foreigners for translation. But no one could identify the unfamiliar language until a certain sailor recognized the outlandish speech and “translated” the chilling story. It turned out that the lady was a princess from the island of Karabu in the Indian Ocean, captured by pirates.
The pirate ship crashed, but she miraculously escaped. The "princess"'s finest hour lasted only 10 weeks. During this time, she showed her acting skills by dressing up in incredible outfits, climbing trees, singing strange songs and swimming naked.
But in the midst of success, Mrs. Neal appeared, who ruined the fairy tale by recognizing the princess. The impostor Mary Baker was the daughter of a shoemaker and worked as a maid for Mrs. Neal. Under the weight of evidence, Mary admitted to deception and returned to the sinful earth. Selling leeches in the hospital, she probably recalled the best weeks of her life.
7. Cassie Chadwick
Her maiden name was Elizabeth Bigley. This woman was a born swindler. She was first arrested at the age of 22, caught forging a check, but was soon released, believing in simulated madness. Elizabeth then became the wife of Wallace Springsteen, but the marriage was annulled after 11 days when the young wife's dark past came to light. The next “victim” was Chadwick’s doctor.
Mrs. Chadwick pulled off her most successful business by calling herself the illegitimate daughter of steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Using a false promissory note for $2,000,000 given to her by her “father,” Cassie received bank loans ranging from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000. When the police finally decided to ask Carnegie if he had a daughter, Cassie, Mrs. Chadwick was arrested. The trial took place on March 6, 1905 and found the swindler guilty of nine frauds. Of the ten years sentenced by the court, Mrs. Chadwick served two and died in captivity.
6. Milli Vanilli
The Milli Vanilli project in the late 80s belonged to the famous German author and producer Frank Farian. It was he who organized the super-popular Boney M. In 1987, Farian recorded material for the Milli Vanilli project with very good musicians. But when it came time to make commercials on television, it turned out that forty-year-old performers did not really meet the expectations of young people.
Therefore, handsome dancers Fabrice Morvan and Robert Pilatus were hired for filming. When the producer arrived at the studio on the day of filming, he was surprised to find Rob and Fab “singing.” Farian did not dare to reveal the deception when the group became very popular and took the top lines of the music charts. The scandal erupted in the nineties, the duo was forced to return the Grammy, and the fate of Rob and Fab did not turn out in the best way.
5. David Hampton
African-American David Hampton was called the son of director and actor Sidney Poitier. Hampton began by posing as David Poitier in restaurants to avoid paying the bill. Having acquired a taste for it, the fraudster became bolder and abused the trust of many Hollywood stars, finding shelter and financial assistance from them.
Among those who believed David Hampton were Calvin Klein and Melanie Griffith. Hampton talked about his friendship with the children of stars, complained that he was late for a plane, talked about a robbery - they believed him. In 1983, Hampton's luck ran out - he was arrested and sentenced to pay $4,490 in monetary compensation. David Hampton died in 2003 from AIDS.
4. Fernand Demara
Professional impostor Fernand Demara tried on the roles of a civil engineer, a deputy sheriff, a prison warden, a doctor of psychology, a lawyer, a children's rights advocate, a Benedictine monk, an editor, an oncologist, a surgeon and a teacher.
Demara was interested exclusively in social status; material benefits from scams faded into the background. Fernand was a wonderful, excellent employee, whom employers valued for his diligence and excellent memory. The swindler really remembered everything he once heard or read, and masterfully applied his knowledge in fraud.
His most famous "output" is the image of Joseph Cayre, a surgeon on a destroyer of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Korean War of 1950-1953. Fernand managed to operate on several wounded and, with the help of penicillin, stop the epidemic. One of his operations was described in the newspapers, and the mother of the real Joseph, Kyra, reported the impostor to the authorities.
When the news reached Korea, the destroyer captain refused to believe that Fernand was not a doctor, and Demara returned to the United States without any negative consequences. He even made some money by selling the story to Life magazine. True, his dubious fame did not allow the fraudster to stay in one place of work for a long time; he even started drinking.
After some time, having forged a diploma, Demara got a job in a Texas prison, but one of the prisoners recognized him from a photograph from Life magazine. Demara lost this job too. Living under false names became increasingly difficult. In 1960, when the story was a little forgotten, he starred in an episode in a horror film, playing a surgeon. The role was not a success.
In 1967, Ferdinand Demar received his only real educational certificate - a diploma from Portland Bible College. Until the end of his days he served as a Baptist minister. The great impostor died in 1982. A book was written and a film was made about the life of this man.
3. Christopher Rocancourt
Christopher Rocancourt is the son of a prostitute and an alcoholic who gave the child up to an orphanage at the age of five. This French swindler went down in history as the fake Rockefeller. In 2001, he was arrested in Canada along with his wife Maria Pia Reyes, a former Playboy model. Christopher Rockancourt was born in 1967. He introduced himself as a personal friend of President Clinton and a member of the Rockefeller clan.
Rockancourt fled to Canada after his arrest in the United States in August 2000 on charges of defrauding dozens of wealthy Americans and swindling out almost $1,000,000. The swindler appeared in the media under the name Christopher Rockefeller.
Hotel employees who testified said that Rocancourt presented himself as a famous racing driver, tired of excessive attention from fans, and therefore living under an assumed name. Other victims of the swindler testified that they considered him an influential financier, champion boxer, and film producer. For some time, the impostor was a friend of Mickey Rourke. Rocancourt was extradited to American justice in March 2002. He admitted three of the eleven charges. Rockancourt's total "catch" is $40,000,000.
2. Frank Abagnale
The young swindler began by robbing his father of $3,400 at the age of 17. Young Abagnale bought a car and asked his father for a Mobil credit card. With this credit card he bought engines, wheels, batteries, and sold them for cash. He spent the money on girls.
Creditors demanded that Abagnale Sr. repay the debt - and the scam was exposed. His father forgave the “tomboy,” but his mother sent him to a Catholic school for delinquents for 4 months. True, the Catholics did not have the expected influence on the young fiend; Frank did not even think of taking the path of correction. Here's one of Frank Abagnale's tricks. He printed his account number on blank bank slips and slipped them into a stack of deposit slips. Bank clients filled out Frank's forms and transferred money to his account. Abegnale's profit from this scam amounted to more than $40,000, and then the bank became wary.
But it was already too late - the trace of the weasel had disappeared. For two years, Frank Abagnale flew around the world for free, posing as Frank Williams, a Pan American pilot. For a long time, a false ID and a pilot's uniform were sufficient attributes of a swindler, but one day he was almost arrested at the New Orleans airport.
Then Frank decided to introduce himself as a pediatrician. He was so convincing that his housemate, a real doctor, offered Abegnale a job as head of the pediatric department.
Frank Abagnale looked older than his years, and at 19, after forging a Harvard diploma and passing aptitude exams, he joined the Louisiana prosecutor's office. True, the first two attempts to pass the exams were unsuccessful, but having understood what questions were usually asked, Frank successfully passed this test.
Abagnale was chased by police from 26 countries and in 1969 he was finally arrested in France. He spent six months in a French prison, then was transferred to a Swedish prison, also for six months. The next one was supposed to be a prison in the USA, but the sentence was 12 years, and Frank was not happy with that at all. He escaped from the plane by opening the grate under the toilet. The plans were to escape to Brazil, but a policeman interfered.
In the end, everything worked out perfectly - multimillionaire Frank Abagnale has his own company, Abagnale and Partners. The company is engaged in consulting on issues of protection against financial fraud. Abagnale is married and has three sons. Steven Spielberg made the film Catch Me If You Can about the life of Frank Abagnale. A former swindler writes books warning us against the machinations of scammers.
1. Victor Lustig
The count who sold the Eiffel Tower rightfully heads the list of brilliant swindlers (see ""). Victor Lustig was born in the Czech Republic, and his gift manifested itself quite early and in all its brilliance. At the age of twenty, Lustig built a money printing press.
While demonstrating his creation to the client, the inventor lamented that the machine worked slowly - only one hundred dollar bill for 6 hours of operation. $100 was a lot of money in those days, and the client was willing to wait. Having counted out $30,000 to Lustig, the happy owner of the printing press enjoyed the anticipation of wealth for 12 hours. But having received his two hundred dollar bills, he was surprised by the third blank piece of paper, and the fourth, and the fifth... By this time Lustig was already far away.
In the spring of 1925, Victor Lustig arrived in Paris. He read in a French newspaper that it needed serious repairs. The brilliant swindler could not help but take advantage of his chance. Having drawn up a letter of credence for the Deputy Minister of Communications, he sent letters to dealers of secondary ferrous metals. Victor Lustig rented a room in an expensive hotel and invited businessmen there.
During the “meeting”, he said that the maintenance and repair of the tower is too great, so the French government wants to demolish it and sell it for scrap at a closed auction. Lustig asked potential buyers not to disclose this secret, which could outrage the French public.
Andre Poisson bought the right to dispose of the Eiffel Tower, and the “deputy minister” disappeared in Vienna with a suitcase of money. Realizing that he had been deceived, Poisson chose not to demonstrate his stupidity and remained silent about the scam. And Lustig, after waiting for some time, returned and sold the tower again. The next buyer was not so proud and contacted the police. Lustig urgently fled to the United States. He was arrested only in 1934 for... He escaped again, but was caught after 27 days and imprisoned for 20 years. He stayed in Alcatraz until 1947 and died in prison from pneumonia.
Lustig ( also translated as Lustig, Lustig) is considered one of the most talented swindlers who ever lived. He endlessly invented scams, had 45 pseudonyms and was fluent in five languages. In the USA alone, Lustig was arrested 50 times, but due to lack of evidence, he was released each time. Before the outbreak of World War I, Lustig specialized in organizing fraudulent lotteries on transatlantic cruises. In the 1920s he moved to the United States, and in just a couple of years he defrauded banks and individuals out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Lustig's biggest scam was the sale of the Eiffel Tower. In May 1925, Lustig arrived in Paris in search of adventure. Lustig read in one of the French newspapers that the famous tower had become quite dilapidated and was in need of repair. Lustig decided to take advantage of this. The fraudster drew up a fake credential in which he identified himself as the deputy head of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, after which he sent official letters to six secondary metal dealers.
Lustig invited the businessmen to the expensive hotel where he was staying and said that since the costs of the tower were unreasonably huge, the government decided to demolish it and sell it for scrap at a closed auction. Allegedly, in order not to cause outrage among the public, who had already fallen in love with the tower, Lustig persuaded the businessmen to keep everything secret. After some time, he sold the right to dispose of the tower to Andre Poisson and fled to Vienna with a suitcase of cash.
Poisson, not wanting to look like a fool, hid the fact of deception. Thanks to this, after some time, Lustig returned to Paris and sold the tower again according to the same scheme. However, this time he was unlucky, as the deceived businessman reported to the police. Lustig was forced to urgently flee to the United States.
In December 1935, Lustig was arrested and put on trial. He received 15 years in prison for counterfeiting dollars, plus another 5 years for escaping from another prison a month before sentencing. He died of pneumonia in 1947 at the famous Alcatraz prison near San Francisco.
Read more about Lusting "The Eiffel Tower for scrapping" (In new window)
2. Frank Abagnale - "Catch Me If You Can"
Frank William Abagnale Jr. (born April 27, 1948) at the age of 17 managed to become one of the most successful bank robbers in US history. This story took place in the 1960s. Using counterfeit bank checks, Abagnale stole approximately $5 million from banks. He also made countless flights around the world using false documents.
Frank later successfully played the role of a pediatrician for 11 months at a hospital in Georgia, after which he falsified a Harvard University diploma and got a job in the office of the Louisiana Attorney General.
For more than 5 years, Abagnale changed about 8 professions, he also continued to enthusiastically forge checks and receive money - banks in 26 countries of the world suffered from the fraudster’s actions. The young man spent the money on dinners in expensive restaurants, buying clothes from prestigious brands and going on dates with girls. The story of Frank Abagnale was used as the basis for the film Catch Me If You Can, where Leonardo DiCaprio played the witty swindler.
3. Christopher Rockancourt - fake Rockefeller
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In 2001, Canadian police arrested a French-born fraudster who had pulled off a number of grandiose scams. Christopher Rockancourt, who was born in 1967, claimed to be a personal friend of Bill Clinton and a member of the Rockefeller family.
Rocancourt was arrested along with his wife, former Playboy model Maria Pia Reyes. The woman was charged with fraud and deliberate deception for the personal gain of a Vancouver businessman at a prestigious ski resort located in Whistler, a favorite vacation spot for wealthy tourists from Europe and the United States.
Police say Rockancourt fled to Canada after he was arrested in East Hampton, New York, in August 2000. Then he was accused of skillfully misleading dozens of wealthy Americans and defrauding them of almost $1 million.
When the fraud was discovered in the USA, the swindler had to urgently flee to Canada. Employees of a hotel in Whistler told police that Rocancourt appeared to everyone to be a famous international racing driver who, in order to avoid the annoying attention of fans, was forced to live under an assumed name. One of the victims he deceived said that the swindler also posed as an influential financier. He was known to portray himself to others as a boxing champion, and he also portrayed himself as a film producer. For some time, the impostor was friends with Mickey Rourke.
In March 2002, Rocancourt was extradited to the United States. He pleaded guilty to 3 of 11 counts, including theft, smuggling, bribery and perjury. He admitted that he had defrauded wealthy citizens out of $40 million.
4. Ferdinand Demara - "The Great Pretender"
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Ferdinand Waldo Demara (1921-1982), known under the nickname "The Great Pretender", during his life with great success played people of a large number of professions and occupations - from a monk and a surgeon to a prison warden. In 1941, he went to serve in the US Army, where he began life for the first time under a new guise, calling himself the name of his friend. After this, Demara impersonated other people many times. He didn’t even finish high school, but every time he falsified educational documents in order to play another role.
During his fraudulent career, Demara has been a civil engineer, a deputy sheriff, a prison warden, a doctor of psychology, a lawyer, a Child Protective Services examiner, a Benedictine monk, an editor, a cancer specialist, a surgeon and a teacher. Surprisingly, in no case did he seek great material gain; it seemed that Demara was only interested in social status. He died in 1982. A book was written and a film was made about the life of Ferdinand Demara.
5. David Hampton (1964-2003)
African-American scammer. He pretended to be the son of black actor and director Sidney Poitier. At first, Hampton posed as David Poitier in order to get free meals at restaurants. Later, realizing that he was trusted and could influence people, Hampton convinced many celebrities to give him money or shelter, including Melanie Griffith and Calvin Klein.
Hampton told some people that he was a friend of their children, lied to others that he was late for a plane in Los Angeles and that his luggage took off without him, and lied to others that he had been robbed.
In 1983, Hampton was arrested and charged with fraud. The court ordered him to pay compensation to the victims in the amount of $4,490. David Hampton died of AIDS in 2003.
6. Milli Vanilli - a duet that couldn't sing
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In the 90s, a scandal erupted involving the popular German duet Milli Vanilli - it turned out that the voices of other people, not the members of the duet, were heard on the studio recordings. As a result, the duo was forced to return the Grammy award they received in 1990.
The Milli Vanilli duo was created in the 1980s. The popularity of Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan began to grow rapidly, and already in 1990 they won the prestigious Grammy award.
The exposure scandal led to tragedy - in 1998, one of the duo members, Rob Pilatus, died of an overdose of drugs and alcohol at the age of 32. Morvan tried unsuccessfully to pursue a musical career. In total, Milli Vanilli sold 8 million singles and 14 million records during its popularity.
7. Cassie Chadwick - illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie
Cassie Chadwick (1857-1907), born Elizabeth Bigley, was first arrested in Ontario at the age of 22 for forging a bank check, but was released because she feigned mental illness.
In 1882, Elizabeth married Wallace Springsteen, but her husband left her after 11 days when he learned about her past. Then in Cleveland the woman married Dr. Chadwick.
In 1897, Cassie organized her most successful scam. She called herself the illegitimate daughter of Scottish steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Thanks to a fake $2 million promissory note allegedly given to her by her father, Cassie received loans from various banks totaling between $10 million and $20 million. In the end, the police asked Carnegie himself if he knew the fraudster, and after his negative answer, they arrested Mrs. Chadwick.
Cassie Chadwick appeared in court on March 6, 1905. She was found guilty of 9 major frauds. Sentenced to ten years, Mrs Chadwick died in prison two years later.
8. Mary Baker - Princess of Caraboo
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In 1817, a young woman in exotic clothing with a turban on her head appeared in Gloucestershire, speaking an unknown language. Local residents approached many foreigners asking them to identify the language, until a Portuguese sailor “translated” her story. Allegedly, the woman was Princess Karabu from an island in the Indian Ocean.
As the stranger said, she was captured by pirates, the ship was wrecked, but she managed to escape. Over the next ten weeks, the stranger was the center of public attention. She dressed up in exotic clothes, climbed trees, sang strange words and even swam naked.
However, a certain Mrs. Neal soon identified “Princess Caraboo.” The impostor from the island turned out to be the daughter of a shoemaker named Mary Baker. As it turned out, while working as a maid in Mrs. Neal's house, Mary Baker entertained the children with the language she invented. Mary was forced to admit to deception. At the end of her life, she was selling leeches at a hospital in England.
9. Wilhelm Voigt - Captain Köpenick
Wilhelm Voigt (1849-1922) - a German shoemaker who pretended to be a Prussian captain. On October 16, 1906, in the southeastern suburb of Berlin Köpenick, the unemployed Wilhelm Voigt rented a Prussian captain's uniform in the city of Potsdam and organized the seizure of the town hall.
Voigt ordered four grenadiers and a sergeant who were accidentally stopped on the street to arrest the burgomaster Köpenick and the treasurer, after which, without any resistance, he single-handedly captured the local town hall, and then confiscated the city treasury - 4,000 marks and 70 pfennigs. Moreover, all his orders were carried out by both the soldiers and the burgomaster himself unquestioningly.
After taking the money and ordering the soldiers to remain in their places for half an hour, Voigt left for the station. On the train, he changed into civilian clothes and tried to escape. Voigt was eventually arrested and sentenced to four years in prison for his raid and theft of the money. In 1908, he was released early by personal order of the Kaiser of Germany.
10. George Psalmanazar - the first witness to the culture of the aborigines of the island of Formosa
George Psalmanazar (1679-1763) claimed to be the first Formosa to visit Europe. It appeared in Northern Europe around 1700. Although Psalmanazar was dressed in European clothing and looked like a European, he claimed to have come from the distant island of Formosa, where he had previously been captured by the natives. As proof, he spoke in detail about their traditions and culture.
Inspired by the success, Psalmanazar later published the book “Historical and Geographical Description of the Island of Formosa.” According to Psalmanazar, the men on the island walk completely naked, and the islanders' favorite food is snakes.
The Formosan people supposedly preach polygamy, and husbands are given the right to eat their wives for infidelity.
The Aborigines execute murderers by hanging them upside down. Every year the islanders sacrifice 18 thousand young men to the gods. The Formosan people ride horses and camels. The book also described the islanders' alphabet. The book was a great success, and Psalmanazar himself began giving lectures on the history of the island. In 1706, Psalmanazar became bored with the game and admitted that he had simply fooled everyone.
Among the many crimes, there are those that involuntarily capture the imagination of ordinary people. There are legends about swindlers and swindlers who treat their criminal “profession” as an art; novels are written about them and films are made about them.
Mary Baker
In 1817, a young woman in exotic clothing with a turban on her head appeared in Gloucestershire, speaking an unknown language. Local residents approached many foreigners asking them to identify the language, until a Portuguese sailor “translated” her story. Allegedly, the woman was Princess Karabu from an island in the Indian Ocean. As the stranger said, she was captured by pirates, the ship was wrecked, but she managed to escape. Over the next ten weeks, the stranger was the center of public attention. She dressed up in exotic clothes, climbed trees, sang strange words and even swam naked. However, a certain Mrs. Neal soon identified “Princess Caraboo.” The impostor from the island turned out to be the daughter of a shoemaker named Mary Baker. As it turned out, while working as a maid in Mrs. Neal's house, Mary Baker entertained the children with the language she invented. Mary was forced to admit to deception. At the end of her life, she was selling leeches at a hospital in England.George Psalmanazar
George Psalmanazar (1679-1763) claimed to be the first Formosa to visit Europe. It appeared in Northern Europe around 1700. Although Psalmanazar was dressed in European clothing and looked like a European, he claimed to have come from the distant island of Formosa, where he had previously been captured by the natives. As proof, he spoke in detail about their traditions and culture. Inspired by the success, Psalmanazar later published the book “Historical and Geographical Description of the Island of Formosa.” According to Psalmanazar, the men on the island walk completely naked, and the favorite food of the islanders is snakes. The Formosan people supposedly preach polygamy, and husbands are given the right to eat their wives for infidelity. The Aborigines execute murderers by hanging them upside down. Every year the islanders sacrifice 18 thousand young men to the gods. The Formosan people ride horses and camels. The book also described the islanders' alphabet. The book was a great success, and Psalmanazar himself began giving lectures on the history of the island. In 1706, Psalmanazar became bored with the game and admitted that he had simply fooled everyone.Wilhelm Voigt
The German Wilhelm Voigt became famous for the fact that on October 6, 1906, on the outskirts of Berlin Köpenick, he rented the uniform of a Prussian captain, ordered four unfamiliar grenadiers who were accidentally stopped on the street to arrest the mayor of Köpenick and the treasurer, after which, without any resistance, he single-handedly captured the local town hall, and then confiscated the city hall. treasury Moreover, all his orders were carried out by both the soldiers and the burgomaster himself unquestioningly. After taking the money and ordering the soldiers to remain in their places for half an hour, Voigt left for the station. On the train he changed into civilian clothes and disappeared. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to four years in prison, but a year later he was released early on the personal orders of the Kaiser of Germany, who admired Voigt’s “tricks.”Prince Tumanov-Tsereteli
In 1910–1914, an epidemic of banking scams swept across the Russian Empire: swindlers received huge sums through forged checks and bank transfers. Moreover, many banks, in order not to lose customers, hushed up cases of fraud and paid amounts stolen from accounts. They were afraid of losing the main thing - the trust of millionaire investors. The boards of banks simply did not talk about relatively small scams involving amounts of 10–20 thousand rubles. The leader of the group of swindlers was Prince Tumanov. In many cities of Russia he has already become famous under different names: Prince Eristavi, Prince Andronnikov, the Persian prince Shah Quli Mirza. In reality, Tumanov was Mikhail Tsereteli - truly a Caucasian prince, deprived of his title for numerous criminal adventures and repeated stints in prison. In his youth, Mikhail served in one of the postal and telegraph offices of St. Petersburg. One day in a restaurant he met a Siamese prince, who introduced the young prince into the circles of the aristocracy with breathtaking women, card games for thousands, and carousing for weeks. Tsereteli spent all his parents' money and was forced to engage in criminal business. For a banking scam in Warsaw and a series of thefts, he was sent to prison in 1906. Upon leaving it, Mikhail returned to St. Petersburg and, having bribed employees of a number of banks, received 180 thousand rubles through forgery. Going on “tours” to Kyiv, Kharkov, Ekaterinoslav, Tsereteli invited titled nobles to his service and, promising them substantial salaries, took their passports and disappeared with them. He needed these documents for further fraud. With their help, in the south of Ukraine, the prince managed to steal 370 thousand rubles from banks. Only in Kyiv in 1914, in the office of the state bank in the name of Andronnikov, he received 157 thousand rubles. In Moscow, Tsereteli, using forged letters from the Merchant Society, managed to get a loan of 50 thousand rubles. Gaining confidence in large businessmen, Tsereteli-Tumanov promised them, with the help of his “palace connections,” to obtain permission to supply the army, for which he took a fee of 50 thousand rubles from clients. In 1913, having visited Germany under the name of Prince Muruzi, he organized large-scale collections there for the German navy. Naturally, he put all the money collected into his pocket. One of Tsereteli’s activities was to defraud rich old women at European and Russian resorts. The handsome prince had a charming effect on women of “Balzac’s age.” They were ready to give him everything for just one kind word. So, he defrauded one baroness out of 20 thousand rubles. He needed other clients to issue forged checks in their names. With the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, a very representative gentleman in smart Caucasian clothes appeared in Odessa, presenting for registration a passport issued in Petrograd in the name of a retired warrant officer of the Caucasian militia, Prince Nikolai Mikhailovich Tumanov. In a rented house, the “prince” lived widely, on a grand scale, and squandered his money in front of everyone. Tumanov-Tsereteli, thanks to his ability to get along with the right people, became a very famous person in local society. This was also helped by his colorful stories about major connections in Petrograd, listing very famous eminent figures from the capital. There were persistent rumors in Odessa, to which the swindler himself was obviously involved, that the “prince’s” fortune was estimated at millions of rubles and that he had large land property in the Caucasus. Tumanov-Tsereteli, along with incredible lordship and extravagance, became famous in Odessa for his widespread charity. He repeatedly provided patronage to poor townspeople, donating large sums for their needs. For example, the “prince” donated 4 thousand rubles to create a Red Cross infirmary for wounded soldiers, and in total he spent at least 20 thousand rubles on charitable purposes. During his six-month stay in Odessa, the “prince” traveled to Petrograd several times, but his trips did not surprise his acquaintances at all and did not in any way alarm the Odessa authorities. Everyone who knew him, as well as the chief of detective police, Hirschfeld, with whom he was on first name terms, was told that the trips were necessary to “settle some financial matters.” In reality, during these trips, Tsereteli and his accomplices withdrew large sums from bank accounts using false checks. In January 1915, P. Ignatiev, an official on special assignments of the detective police, arrived in Odessa from the capital, who had been hunting for “Prince” Tumanov for a long time. The latest arrest did not surprise or frighten Tsereteli. During the investigation, he admitted that in the last two years alone he had pulled off 15 very large scams. This brought him 500 thousand rubles - a super fantastic amount at that time! In his defense, the prince said: “I am not a criminal, I am an artist. What I did were not crimes, because the banks rob the public, and I rob the banks.” He also stated: “Many people in Odessa fooled me, but I myself am a kind person and I lost everything I “earned” in Odessa at roulette, and gave away part of the money and gave it to the soldiers and the wounded.”Victor Lustig
Victor Lustig is considered one of the most talented swindlers who ever lived. He endlessly invented scams, had 45 aliases and was constantly in trouble with the law. In the USA alone, Lustig was arrested 50 times, but due to lack of evidence, he was released each time. Victor Lustig was born in 1890 in the Czech city of Hostin. By the time he graduated from high school, he was already fluent in five languages - Czech, English, French, German and Italian. Immediately after graduating from school, he left home and went to travel around Europe. After several arrests for petty mischief and countless changes of habitat, Victor settled in Paris, the gambling center of Europe at that time. Here he mastered poker and bridge to perfection, turning into a professional player. Lustig became so skilled at these games that they completely provided him with a comfortable existence. He becomes a regular passenger on transatlantic steamship flights. Traveling from Europe to America and back in a luxury cabin, Lustig “entertains” gambling Americans, aristocrats and new Europeans who have become rich from construction contracts and stock exchange transactions. In the 1920s, he moved to the United States and in just a couple of years defrauded dozens of banks and individuals out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. For example, he once released a money printing machine for sale. The peculiarity of this black box was that it supposedly printed a $100 bill in six hours, which was demonstrated to the public. Satisfied "Pinocchios" bought this device, after which it "produced" two or three hundred dollar bills and stopped working. Naturally, these bills were loaded in advance, and the calculation was that in 12 hours Lustig himself would have time to sell several cars and escape. The price of such a car, by the way, was $30,000, so he was not a loser. However, Lustig's most ambitious scam was the sale of the Eiffel Tower. In May 1925, he arrived in Paris in search of adventure and read in one of the French newspapers that the famous tower had become quite dilapidated and needed either repair or demolition. The scammer decided to take advantage of this. He drew up a forged credential in which he identified himself as deputy head of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, after which he sent out invitations on government letterhead to six of Europe's largest steel magnates, inviting them to take part in a discussion of the fate of the Eiffel Tower. Lustig invited the businessmen to the expensive hotel where he was staying and said that since the costs of the tower were unreasonably huge, the government decided to demolish it and sell it for scrap at a closed auction. Allegedly, in order not to cause outrage among the public, who had already fallen in love with the tower, Lustig persuaded the businessmen to keep everything secret. The total weight of the tower was about 9 thousand tons, the weight of metal structures alone was 7.3 thousand tons. Moreover, the starting price offered by the “government” was even lower than the cost of scrap metal. One could only dream of such a gift from fate. Lustig offered the contract on a competitive basis. During a conversation with businessmen, he hinted at his poverty and, taking bribes like an ordinary government official, once again convinced the tycoons of the reality of the proposal and dispelled their last doubts. Lustig eventually sold the right to dispose of the tower to millionaire Andre Poisson, taking a check from him for 50 thousand dollars. On the day specified in the license, Poisson’s representative, at the head of a team of installers, appeared at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The scandal was hushed up after a short investigation. No one was interested in publicity, not excluding the victims. Lustig returned to the United States, where in the late 20s he pulled off several sophisticated scams in New York and Chicago. Even Al Capone became one of his “clients”. In the early thirties, Victor Lustig came to Paris again and... sold the Eiffel Tower again! This time - for 75 thousand dollars! And again he got away with the scam. The end of his fraud came in 1935. Lustig was arrested in the United States and put on trial. He received 15 years in prison for counterfeiting dollars, plus another 5 years for escaping from another prison a month before sentencing. He did not manage to leave the famous Alcatraz prison, dying of pneumonia in 1947. Frank Abagnale
Now this man is 61 years old, and in his youth he presented himself as an airplane pilot, lawyer, college professor, pediatrician, and other titles and positions. It was based on his adventures that the film “Catch Me If You Can” was made. Frank William Abagnale Jr., aka Frank Williams, Robert Conrad (and further down the list), was born on April 27, 1948 and at the age of 17 managed to become one of the most successful bank robbers in US history. Frank began his "career" when he was barely sixteen, and the first victim of his machinations was his own father. Frank asked his father for his credit card to pay for gas, and he agreed with a service station employee to supposedly sell him various spare parts for the car, but in fact they divided this money among themselves. Thus, 14 sets of tires, 22 batteries and a large amount of gasoline were “bought.” Later, when the deception was discovered, the father scolded the child, but there was no special punishment. Frank himself decided not to do this to his father again, because he worked hard, and in the future the young talent transferred his activity to other people. “He could write a check on toilet paper, sign it and cash it from any bank in the city, providing a Hong Kong driving license as identification.” This is what the Houston police chief said about the youngest, most daring and elusive swindler of the twentieth century. Over the course of 5 years, Abagnale “changed” 8 professions. He successfully played the role of a sociology professor and pediatrician at a children's hospital in Georgia, after which, after “drawing” himself a degree from Harvard University, he got a job in the office of the Louisiana Attorney General. Banks in 26 countries around the world suffered from the fraudster’s actions: Abagnale stole about five million dollars using counterfeit bank checks. And all this before he turned twenty! The young man spent the money on dinners in expensive restaurants, buying clothes from prestigious brands and going on dates with girls. He also flew countless flights around the world posing as a PanAm pilot and was eventually banned from 12 countries. At the age of 21, the elusive (for the time being) swindler was caught, but after a short imprisonment he managed to escape during a transfer between correctional institutions, was recaptured, imprisoned, and after serving five years, was released at the age of 26, being released early for free voluntary assistance in capturing his own kind and began working for the FBI. “I know almost more than anyone else about the mechanics of fraud, check fabrication and forgery... Every time I write a check in a store, I notice two or three mistakes by the clerk or cashier. I could teach people who handle checks and letters of credit how to protect themselves from fraud and theft. I'll give your employees an hour-long lecture. If you decide it's worthless, you don't owe me anything. If you find it successful, pay me $50 and call a couple of friends at other banks to give me a recommendation...” Joseph Weil
Joseph Weil was born in Chicago in 1875. In his youth, he made a living by fooling blind farmers. He had several magazine pages in large print that he inserted into the magazine. Appearing on a farm whose owner was weak-eyed, Wale would take out glasses with “gold” frames and convince the farmer to try them on, immediately slipping in a page with large print. It seemed to the farmer that he could see much better with these glasses, and the pre-painted frames really seemed golden. In the end, the farmer persuaded the traveling salesman to leave him the glasses for a couple of days for a 3-4 dollar deposit, assuring him that he would either return the goods or pay the difference. Wale agreed with a contrite look. It was impossible to tell the farmer that he bought glasses in bulk for 15 cents apiece. Wale didn't just cheat his victims: he made them believe that they were the ones who were screwing him over. Already in adulthood, having learned that the Munsi National Bank of Commerce was moving to a new building, Wale immediately rented the empty house and created a fictitious bank for a single transaction. He hired a whole team of seasoned Chicago swindlers and swindlers, who populated the “bank” with characters. There were queues at the cash registers, operators accepted and issued cash, security stood outside, and clerks scurried around inside with papers under the watchful control of the all-seeing manager. Meanwhile, Weil's assistant prepared a "client" - a Chicago multimillionaire, to whom he informed that the owner of the bank had control over government-owned land, which could be purchased for a quarter of its real value. Due to the confidentiality of the transaction, payment is only possible in cash. The client brought with him half a million dollars. A luxury car met him at the station and took him to the bank. The actors played their roles brilliantly and made the right impression on the buyer: the bank looked very prosperous. The client was forced to wait an hour for an audience with the banker. During this time, the bank’s reputation was strengthened many times in his eyes, because every now and then he had to hear telephone conversations like: “There is nowhere to put money,” “We need to strengthen security,” etc. Finally, the banker deigned to receive another visitor. He looked lethargic and showed the land documents without any interest. When the client, having verified the “authenticity” of the papers, opened the suitcase with the money, Weil decided to “turn up the heat” and backed down, refusing to sell the plots. But in the end he allowed himself to be persuaded and sold the land for 400 thousand dollars. Calmly watching the lid of the suitcase close, in which there were still 100 thousand left, he knew well what the happy buyer was thinking about now: that if they wanted to “throw him away”, they would take everything. One of Whale's most famous victims was Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. The fraudster came to Italy under the guise of an official - an engineer in the mining industry - and sold the great Duce the rights to develop rich mines in Colorado. By the time the Italian secret service discovered the trick, the elusive Weil had managed to escape with two million dollars from Mussolini's safes. Wale's money didn't last long. He spent a lot on gaming, luxurious life and women. In addition, whenever he went to prison, where he spent a total of 10 years, his property was appropriated by his brother, a Chicago bailiff. Joseph Weil died in 1976, having lived exactly 101 years in the world.Charles Ponzi
One of the most famous swindlers in American history, Charles Ponzi was an Italian-American financial genius whose name became a household name for the principle of the financial pyramid of which he became the founder. Our MMM used the same enrichment scheme, so Charles should be thanked for the idea. By the way, he arrived in Boston in 1903 with 2 dollars in his pocket and “a million dollars of hope,” according to the swindler himself. After that, for a long time he could not earn any money, and only in 1919, using $200 borrowed from a merchant friend, he launched the pyramid mechanism. He promised to pay 50% of the profit in three months, that is, for every $1,000 he would return $1,500. Investors flowed in like a river, and Ponzi himself bathed in luxury. Everything collapsed when that same merchant wanted half of the Ponzi money for himself and sued him. Acceptance of deposits was stopped, and depositors rushed to take their money. And then it turned out that the company had several million dollars of debt, and Ponzi was essentially bankrupt. After serving five years after this, Ponzi continued to engage in fraud. was later deported to his homeland and eventually died in the charity department of a Rio de Janeiro hospital, leaving behind 75 dollars, with which he was buried. Christopher Rocancourt
Early on the morning of April 2001, Canadian police officers entered a luxurious hotel room occupied by a man with documents in the name of Christopher Rockefeller. Despite the indignation of the guest and the crying of his wife and 3-year-old child, the man was handcuffed and taken to the police station. There, the arrested person answered all questions that he was a member of a famous family and had simply come to relax with his wife and son at a ski resort. But the detectives did not believe the 33-year-old foreigner with a French accent and sent his fingerprints to the American FBI, from where a few hours later they received a message that the Canadians had detained an international adventurer, whose real name was Christopher Rocancourt. For 10 years, he was hunted by Interpol, the FBI, as well as police officers in New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong. The Americans arrested Rocancourt several times for fraud, extortion and forgery, but then released him on large bail, which was provided by his wife Pia Reis, a former Playboy magazine model. Rocancourt was born in 1968 in the fishing village of Honfleur in the south of France. His father drowned at sea and his mother died of tuberculosis. The baby was raised by his aunt, who eventually gave him to an orphanage. At the age of 20, the future international adventurer came to Geneva and took part in the robbery of a large jewelry store, after which, having received his share, he left for Las Vegas, where he tested his luck by playing cards and roulette. The Swiss managed to capture Rocancourt's accomplice, who took all the blame on himself and died in prison, so the court could not prove Rocancourt's direct participation in the robbery, and he did not go to jail. The Swiss authorities only declared him “persona non grata” until 2016. The idea of making money by posing as a member of the family of the legendary billionaire John Rockefeller did not immediately occur to Rockancourt. Having successfully avoided prison and waited a few years to be sure so that the Geneva affairs were forgotten, the enterprising Frenchman surfaced in the United States in the mid-1990s. Posing himself either as the nephew of the famous film producer Dino de Laurentiis, or as the son of Sophia Loren, or as the brother of Dodi al-Fayed, Rocancourt ingratiates himself with single rich women, seduces them and robs them. Soon the scammer comes to the conclusion that fleecing rich widows is not original, and he comes up with a new legend. From now on he is Christopher Rockefeller, a relative of the famous founder of Standard Oil. The fraudster rents a mansion in Beverly Hills, moves around Los Angeles mainly by helicopter and only in extreme cases by limousine. In chic restaurants he drinks exclusively Dom Perignon, which he treats to everyone. Everywhere he appears to be a successful financier who relieves his melancholy by participating in Formula 1 racing. He makes touching confessions in the press: “I’m probably not as good as Michael Schumacher, but he and I are from the same Ferrari stable.” The newly minted Rockefeller refers to Bill Clinton and the Sultan of Brunei as his good friends. With such a “resume”, Rocancourt easily gains a foothold in the Hollywood crowd. Jean-Claude Van Damme turned out to be especially gullible, to whom the swindler promised to give him 40 million dollars to shoot his own film, after which the actor literally followed on the heels of a potential sponsor. The friends took a lot of pictures together. Christopher carefully saved the photographs for later demonstration to the right people. He also became closely acquainted with another Hollywood star, Mickey Rourke. The paparazzi even managed to film them kissing. However, meeting movie stars was not Christopher Rocancourt's main goal. He spent money on them solely in order to use them as a cover for scamming large entrepreneurs who loved to spend time in the company of Hollywood bohemia. “Rockefeller” got to know them and offered to invest in some “super-promising business.” In a different situation, any more or less experienced businessman would probably have made inquiries about the prospective partner and made sure that there was not a single Christopher in the Rockefeller family at all. But it never occurred to them that the nice guy with whom Rourke and Van Damme are friends could be a fraudster. But one day the patience of the creditors, who gave money to Christopher Rockefeller “under his name,” finally snapped, and they brought the police on him. As Los Angeles prosecutor George Mueller said in an interview, in one area of Los Angeles alone, Rocancourt racked up the local elite for at least $900 thousand. In August 2000, he was arrested in East Hampton, New York. He was accused of skillfully misleading dozens of wealthy Americans and defrauding them of almost a million dollars. However, Rocancourt's wife posted a $200,000 deposit, and the swindler with a fake passport immediately flew to Hong Kong, where he managed to defraud the local elite out of several million more dollars. After such “nervous work,” Rocancourt and his family came to Canada to a prestigious ski resort located in Whistler, a favorite vacation spot for wealthy tourists from Europe and the United States. Hotel employees in Whistler subsequently told the police that everyone thought of Rockancourt as a famous international racing driver or world boxing champion who, in order to avoid the attention of fans, was forced to live under an assumed name. Here he persuaded local businessman Robert Baldock to buy a “luxury house” for $7 million, which turned out to be unfinished. Baldock, who bought the “junk,” immediately contacted the police. Christopher Rocancourt, who did not have time to escape with the money from Canada, was immediately arrested, accused of fraud and deliberate deception for the personal gain of a Vancouver businessman, and then extradited to the United States, where he told investigators that he had defrauded wealthy citizens around the world out of $40 million! Now, sitting in prison, Christopher is writing a book of memoirs, which after his release he hopes to publish in large quantities and become rich again.Anthony Jignak
Before the scandal associated with the Rocancourt case had died down in the press, a new one broke out. In the summer of 2002, Chicago police arrested Colombian Anthony Jignac, who for 9 years posed as “Saudi Prince Khaled, grandson of King Abdelaziz.” The fraudster, using a fictitious name and fake credit cards, robbed individuals and the government of about $200 million during this period!!! Richly dressed and hung with gold jewelry, the “prince” rode around in a limousine with “personal security” or in the most expensive Mercedes models. Repeatedly, the adventurer stayed in the most expensive hotel rooms, leaving behind huge debts. He owed only the Grand Bay Hotel in Miami $70,000 for his 10-day stay in a penthouse. A Colombian was detained after another scam. He agreed to buy a limousine for half a million dollars and mistakenly presented a credit card in his real name to pay for part of the car, promising to pay the rest after receiving the money from Saudi Arabia. The seller reported this to the police, who had been looking for “Prince Khaled” for a long time. A representative of the Saudi embassy in Washington said after the arrest of Anthony Jignak that Saudi Arabia is well aware of the fraudster. Before the events of September 11 in the United States, dozens of crooks posed as representatives of the Saudi royal family or millionaires with big names, but only a Colombian managed to mislead everyone for so long.Milli Vanilli
In the 90s of the last century, a new “star” suddenly lit up on the musical horizon - the German group Milli Vanilli. Her first video, Girl You Know It's True, began to break all sales records, including those of Michael Jackson himself. Naturally, the performers received a Grammy as the best debut project, because their album became six times platinum in the USA and ten times platinum in Canada. In addition, they were awarded the American Music Award three times. It seemed that nothing foreshadowed trouble, but as always, everything was ruined by selfishness and bad habits. The group's lead singers became addicted to drugs, signed a contract to shoot a porn film, and eventually abandoned their producer. The offended producer told reporters that Rob and Fab, who played the performers on stage, had nothing to do with the songs, other people sang them. A scandal broke out, all the prizes were taken away, multimillion-dollar fines were paid, and several million discs of false performers were returned to stores. A few years later, after an unsuccessful attempt to perform under their own voices, Rob and Fab returned to their producer and began recording a new album, but the death of one of the lead singers from drugs in 1998 put a big end to this controversial project. Manuel Elizalde
On June 7, 1971, Philippine official Manuel Elizalde on the island of Mindanao made a discovery that shocked the entire Western culture. In the impenetrable jungle he came into contact with the Tasaday tribe. What was remarkable about this tribe? But the fact is that since the Stone Age they have never had contact with the outside world, and, moreover, they did not even know about its existence.
They did not know about agriculture, had stone tools and lived in caves. They ate mainly roots, fruits, and hunting. And what the Western public liked most was that they didn’t have words like “war” or “enemy”. Just flowers of life - what else did America need in the 70s for popular love and adoration? "Sensation!" - the newspapers trumpeted. National Geographic published documentary materials and photographs about them, and made a film. With the participation of John Rockefeller, a fund to help the PANNAMIN tribe was created. Marcos, the Philippine dictator, declared the caveman area a nature reserve and banned visitors. All excursions - mostly of journalists or Western stars - were carried out only together with Manuel Elizalde and the military. Of course, there were some skeptics. Some said they saw the Tasaday secretly eating rice or smoking cigarettes. But no one took it seriously. But, after 15 years, Marcos’s time came to an end, a coup took place and a more democratic government ascended the throne. The military blockade of Tasaday was lifted and everyone could visit the “children of nature”, about whom they had already forgotten a little, but were still remembered and interested (and, most importantly, invested money in a charitable foundation). This is what anthropologist Oswald Iten decided to do. And then thunder struck. There was no one in the caves! And not only in the caves, but also there were no traces of the tribe’s long-term habitation (since the Stone Age, after all). But nearby lived suspiciously similar natives in modern huts and wearing jeans. After further research, it turned out that the Tasadays were actually “played” by natives from neighboring tribes. ABC releases the documentary "The Tribe That Never Was" and millions of viewers see their favorite "nature's children" in Levi's jeans and T-shirts. In retrospect, many people's eyes were opened; those inconsistencies that had not been noticed before finally came to light - why were the caves so clean, where did the Tasadays get metal objects from, why did they speak the local language, how did they avoid degeneration? And then they remembered Elizalde. The pseudo-tasaday admitted that it was he who drove them into the caves and forced them to play roles. Was he a genius if he managed to fool millions of people for 15 years? Perhaps, yes, because at the time of the exposure, while in Costa Rica, he was spending the first of the 35 million dollars of the Children of Nature Fund with all his might. And finally - Baron Munchausen!
The 18th century German nobleman Carl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Munchausen served in the army and after returning, in addition to the rank of captain, he brought back many different stories about his army adventures. Among such stories are the entry into St. Petersburg on a sleigh drawn by a wolf, a horse cut in two in Ochakovo, a fur coat gone wild, a cherry tree growing on the head of a deer, a horse on a bell tower and others. Some of these stories were immortalized in books and films, as well as in a wonderful animated series :) The world's first monument to this man, and later a literary character, was erected in Bodenwerder, the second in 1970 in Khmelnitsky, in Ukraine. Also named after Munchausen is a psychological disorder in which the patient tells sob stories about his fictitious illness in order to attract attention.
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