The man is known to have in the 1990s extracted millions of dollars from wealthy Americans, in Hollywood and New York, by multiplying pseudonyms, which earned him more than a decade in prison.
In France, Christophe Rocancourt was sentenced in 2012 for abuse of weakness on the director Catherine Breillat and, five years later, in the case of the theft of 52 kg of cocaine from the former headquarters of the judicial police, on 36 , Headquarters.
“Rocancourt before and Rocancourt today, it’s not the same, the years have passed”, promises at the bar the defendant, 55, smoked glasses with thick frames, gray hair styled on the side blue sweater dark on black pants and sneakers.
“I was a crook” and “today I have evolved, I have changed”, continues the one who presents himself as the author of “seven books”.
“All this story, if I may allow myself (…) it’s a bit of a story of cornecul, we are not in the high-flying”, affirms Christophe Rocancourt. “I recognize the facts in a clear way”, he continues nevertheless, “I assume”.
“The scammer of the stars” is judged alongside 18 defendants in a case with drawers dating from 2014 and 2015, the main part of which is that known as “leaks from 36”.
– “Derisory sums” –
He appears in particular for having lent 90,000 euros to the lawyer Marcel Ceccaldi, in exchange for substantial interest.
During the investigation, he had recognized this loan. But at the helm, he denies: “I had to help him with a few funds, derisory sums” and “I helped him out by bringing him two clients”, but “for free”.
“What you are telling us does not at all tally with the telephone interceptions”, notes President Benjamin Blanchet. “You announced that you were going to tell the truth. But it varies, this truth.”
“You know the truth, it is not unique”, replies Christophe Rocancourt.
In a detached tone, hands on either side of the bar, the defendant is sometimes crafty, willingly praising, towards the examining magistrate Roger Le Loire – “humanly, someone exceptional” – Marcel Ceccaldi – with whom he spoke of “Marc Aurèle or Sophocles” – and his co-defendant the notary Jean-Michel Vulach, “charming and pleasant”.
A notary he is suspected of having defrauded.
During the investigation, he had admitted having made him believe in the existence of a corrupt policeman, nicknamed “the crevard”, likely to intervene in his favor in legal cases. The notary would have paid him 10,000 euros, half of which would have been donated to Marcel Ceccaldi.
In a listening, Mr. Rocancourt said, referring to Mr. Vulach: “The Vuvu, we will twist it, we will take sorrel from it”.
– “The bastard was me” –
“I did not defraud Mr. Vulach”, assures Mr. Rocancourt this time. This stratagem, “I did not design it, we were in a form of joke, of deconnade”. The “crevard”? “It was Marcel Ceccaldi”.
His partner Alexandra Mallet admitted the previous week to have posed, at his request, for this “crevard” policeman on the phone.
“She had the misfortune to meet Rocancourt”, he laments, speaking of a “young woman from a very good family” who was “under (his) influence”. “The bastard in this story is me”.
Christophe Rocancourt is also suspected of having asked the founder of the GIGN, Christian Prouteau, met on a TV set in 2010, to intervene in the regularization file of a Moroccan, client of Marcel Ceccaldi.
The ex-policeman of the Elysée, whom he calls “Mr. the prefect”, “only told the truth”, proclaims the fifty-year-old, confirming this time his past statements.
He asked him to “find out” but the sum of 2,500 euros mentioned in wiretapping was linked to the aborted purchase of a watch and not to remuneration, he maintains.
Christophe Rocancourt also admits having practiced the profession of banker illegally, by lending sums to “a small list” of people at usurious rates of 30%. And can’t help slipping, smiling: “In my case, admit it’s a bit funny, banker…”
