They had it coming

You don't know who he is now, but hopefully you will soon enough.\nThere are book deals and movie options in the works, all for Christopher Rocancourt (aka Christopher Rockefeller, aka James De Laurentis), as he sits in jail for fraud.\nHe very well may be my hero.\nIn the early to mid-'90s, Rocancourt began showing up to black-tie events and giving off an air of success. Ordering the finest wines, being seen with the most beautiful women and igniting ballrooms with his personality, he would instill himself into high society's social order to establish himself as a legitimate entrepreneur. He would shake hands with oil tycoons, entertainment hotshots and elite investors. Within days of meeting him, they would hand him as much as $50,000 up-front to invest in businesses and loans.\nExcept they would never get their money back and Rocancourt would be gone.\nHe invaded Hollywood, the Hamptons and Beverly Hills. He would pose as the heir to the Rockefeller fortune, the son of actress Sophia Loren and as a European prizefighter, and according to "60 Minutes" (April 20), he scammed almost $2 million before finally being caught in April 2001.\nAnd what does Rocancourt say with regard to his victims?\n"I don't feel sorry. I think they are greedy and poor businessmen," (Maxim, Aug. issue).\nSo he's a criminal, right? We should punish him to the fullest extent of the law, right?\nI say no. Let's praise him.\nCapitalism is Darwinism, baby … an economic battle royale. If you can't hang with the big boys, then get the hell out of the ring, because there are plenty of able-bodied and able-minded people out there capable of enormous success. And yet, they can't move up in society because they can't go to college, they can't work the system and they don't know the right people.\nWell, it seems like "the right people" got themselves in a bind this time. Now they do everything in their power to punish Rocancourt while avoiding the real issue: they were so ignorant, they let greed cloud their judgment.\nAnd we're supposed to feel sorry for them! I'm not denying that a crime was committed here, but come on! If you are worth millions of dollars, you better be damn good at what you do, and you better be responsible with your crap.\nRocancourt rode into the eye of the storm to go after the upper class and exploit those who deserved to be exploited. Anyone who gives $50,000 to someone they've known for only two days shouldn't have that money in the first place. I don't hate the rich, but I do hate the rich who can't take care of their own. So when some old money gets duped by a Frenchman in sheep's clothing, I feel no pain.\n He might be a criminal, but he has inadvertently found a flaw in our praised economic system. The son of an alcoholic artist and a prostitute, Rocancourt knew he would have no mobility within our system. So, like Marx predicted, he revolted. He proved that he was more elite than the elite. If people want to stand around and call him a terrible criminal because he robbed honest people of hard-earned dollars, they better think again.\nRocancourt didn't prey on little old ladies in Florida with a pyramid scheme. He didn't rob a lower-class family of their life savings. He didn't build a faulty monorail and skip town.\nNo. He went right for the jugular of America's economic elite.\nBecause of some sly plea-bargaining, Rocancourt will be out of jail within five years. He'll go back to his Playboy playmate wife and hopefully live out a normal life.\nAnd hopefully history won't remember him as a con man.\nHe'll be remembered as a con artist.