Impostors Cash In on the Rockefeller Name

July 30, 2008— -- When the Rev. Brian Marsh asked a new member of his parish, Clark Rockefeller, about his famous last name, Rockefeller didn't answer.

Instead, Marsh claims, Rockefeller showed the Cornish, N.H., pastor a pocketknife inscribed with the name Nelson Rockefeller, the former vice president and descendant of oil baron John D. Rockefeller.

"He never identified whether he was a member of the Rockefeller family," Marsh said. "But he implied a connection."

"I had no reason not to believe him."

But Marsh apparently should not have believed Rockefeller. Police and the FBI were searching on Wednesday for Rockefeller after he allegedly abducted his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit on Sunday in Boston.

Rockefeller, in fact, is not related to the Rockefeller family of New York, according to a Rockefeller family spokesman, and he has gone by several aliases in the past, Boston police say, including J.P. Clark Rockefeller, James Frederick, Clark Mill Rockefeller and Michael Brown.

He is not the only person to take on the historic Rockefeller name. Whether for fame, fortune or thrills, others have attempted to pass themselves off as members of one of America's wealthiest families.

Fraser Seitel, a Rockefeller family spokesman, said that while cases of such impostors are unusual, they do happen.

Perhaps the most famous was Christopher Rocancourt, a French-born con artist who convinced members of the Hamptons jet-set that he was a Rockefeller family heir, despite his French accent. He was sentenced to three years in prison for swindling his newfound wealthy "friends" in New York and California out of $1.5 million.

"You'd want to hire him as your sales person," said Peter Hoffman, a private investigator who worked on the case. "This kid convinced someone to give him $106,000 in cash. That takes talent."

Rocancourt, who also reportedly passed himself off as an entertainment producer and race car driver, was deported to France after his 2006 release from prison and wrote a book about his life.