Despite his rough appearance, thick accent and broken nose, he's fooled the rich and famous.

In the past decade, this French rogue has adopted about a dozen different aliases, including Fabien Ortuno, Christopher Rockefeller, Chistopher de la Renta, and Gauvin De Laurentis. Christophe Rocancourt has variously suckered people into believing that he's a movie producer, a race car driver, a financier, or an international businessman.

Police in Los Angeles and New York aren't sure how many millions he's scammed, because the rich and powerful don't like to admit that they've been fooled by a common grifter. But New York police guess that he fled to Canada with at least a$250,000 US of other people's money. The rest, he spent on $30,000 bottles of wine and penthouse suites.

The French fugitive's trail:

July 1967

Born in Honfleur, France. According to one report, his parents were an alcoholic house painter and teenaged prostitute. He spent three years of his childhood in an orphanage. Adopted in his early teens by a military man, he fled at the age of 18 to a life of crime in the streets. His first false identity was the grandiose title, Prince de Galitzine.

1991

He is named a suspect in an armed robbery of gems, in Geneva. The loot was worth $400,000, and crime considered serious because two people were held hostage overnight. The Frenchman flees to the U.S.

1993

Arrested by the F.B.I. in Las Vegas on an Interpol warrant, he is returned to Switzerland. Authorities there hold Roncancourt for a year. Unable to build a case against him, authorities release him. But he is barred from re-entry to Switzerland until 2016.

1995

Roncancourt has returned to Los Angeles, and is passing himself off as the son of Dino De Laurentiis and a friend of Dodi Fayed. He befriends the likes of Mickey Rourke and Jean-Claude van Damme, and marries a former Playboy playmate.

Dec. 1997

After a police raid on his suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, he is charged with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute false government documents in a passport ring. He posts bail and disappears from the Hollywood scene for a few months.

March 1998

Involved in a shooting in the streets of West Hollywood, Rocancourt is charged with suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He posts $125,000 bail and once again flees. During their investigation of this bizarre shootout, police uncovered a money-laundering conspiracy, an insurance scam, paperwork on false identities and a slew of other complex scams.

July, 2000

Rocancourt spends the summer in the Hamptons, posing as a Rockefeller, bilking the well-to-do out of nearly $1 million. His behaviour arouses the suspicions of a couple of local artists, who find the conman's French accent and crude table manners out of place in this upper-crust setting. One man calls the Rockefeller Foundation and learns there is no French-speaking branch of the family.

August 2000:

Rocancourt is arrested in early August, but under the name of Fabien Ortuno. He was charged with impersonation and walking out on his $19,000 bed-and-breakfast tab. Before police could match the Rockefeller and the Ortuno aliases with his real identity, he skips out on his $45,000 bail.

November 2000

Rocancourt calls a New York Times reporter to explain himself. He won't reveal his whereabouts but says he is in an English-speaking country.

January 2001

A Vanity Fair article on the case draws international attention to Rocancourt. Movie rights are snapped up.

April 2001

Rocancourt is arrested near Victoria, B.C., along with his common-law wife Pia Reyes. Both are charged with fraud over $5,000. Police won't reveal much about their methods in the case, but people in Whistler, B.C. are quick to tell their stories about his alleged scams in the ski resort village this past month.