La chaine de television americaine CNN dans son programme CNN &Time du dimanche 29 octobre 2000 a 21h, heure de New-York, a diffuse une affaire de faux et usage de faux, et escroqueries multiples, dont le cerveau serait un francais du nom de Christophe Rocancourt. Les escroqueries ont eu lieu dans les milieux riches de Los-Angeles (Beverly-Hills) et de New-York (Hamptons). Rocancourt se faisait passer pour un fils Rockefeller et infiltrait les milieux riches attendant le moment opportun pour faire main basse sur bijoux, argent liquide, tableau de maitre etc…Ce qui nous interesse, en tant que Gabonais, est que la complice de ce francais (Rocancourt), a ete presente par CNN comme etant une certaine LEA BONGO, NIECE DU PRESIDENT DE LA REPUBLIQUE GABONAISE. CNN a presente le passeport de cette demoiselle a l’ecran; elle est plutot jeune (la 20aine) et son nom sur le passeport est LEA DABANY. J’essaierai d’obtenir plus d’infos sur cette affaire et vous en faire part le plus tot possible.

He Newsman cette Lea Dabany ou Bongo n'est pas la niece de Bongo et tu le sais tres bien.C'est la
soeur d'Assele et Patience Dabany.Rectifie ton tire vieux.

Pas du tout

Mon vieux,

Ce n’est pas moi qui dit que cette demoiselle est la niece de Bongo mais plutot CNN. Je ne fais que rapporter ici ce que le reportage de CNN a diffuse. Si vous avez des protestations a ce sujet, adressez vous a CNN et non a moi.

Conclusion: je n’ai rien a rectifier.

Merci

Où est la justice dans ce que vous faites ?

Que ce soit CNN ou un autre média, comment pouvez vous vous réduire en véhicule de faits sans justice.

Je comdamne votre message, qui n'a rien à voir avec le combat sur le départ de BONGO, parce que je trouve votre attitude ignoble et criminelle.

Pauvre fille, s'il s'avère qu'elle est victime d'une manipulation ou elle aussi d'une escroquérie, elle pourra dire merci au BDP de l'avoir tachée.

Allez !

Mise au point

1-CNN est un organe de presse tres serieux et l’information diffusee par CNN doit etre consideree comme telle.

2-Dans son reportage, CNN a presente cette demoiselle comme etant la NIECE de BONGO et ils ont presente sa photo en gros plan sur l’ecran, ainsi que sa fiche d’etat civil telle que decrite dans son passeport. Vous pouviez lire en gros caracteres les ecrits de ce passeport diplomatique Gabonais.

3-Vous me demandez de censurer cette information, ce qui n’est pas raisonnable car le reportage de CNN etait sans equivoque; la demoiselle a ete presentee comme la COMPLICE du sieur Rocancourt dans ces affaires d’escroqueries. CNN n’a pas laisse de doute sur l’implication de cette demoiselle. De plus, si son passeport a ete presente a la tele, c’est que l’enquete a deja determine que notre compatriote est n'est pas tres innocente. Maintenant, si l’affaire allait au tribunal et que la demoiselle etait disculpee, je vous en informerais avec la meme rapidite.

Pour l’instant, je ne vois pas pourquoi il faut cacher cette information aux Gabonais.

J’ose croire que nous nous comprenons.

Modifié le 30-oct-00 à 18h22  (New Jersey)

Le New-York Times a aussi publie un article sur l'affaire Rocancourt. Allez vous les accuser aussi d'avoir une attitude "criminelle"?

The New York Times
Section B; Page 1; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk

Hunted Man Is No Rockefeller, but Plays One in Hamptons, the Police Say

By ALAN FEUER and CHARLIE LeDUFF

He cut a wide swath through the Hamptons this summer. His name was sterling: Christopher Rockefeller. His pitch was gold: "I can double your money in a month." Women threw themselves at his feet; men threw cash.

But the longer he stayed, the less the details made sense. If he was heir to an American fortune, why did he speak with a French accent? He slouched, and slurped his soup. He wore tattoos. He sniffed at a glass of jug wine and praised its bouquet. He could not remember whether his Manhattan apartment was on 57th or 59th Street. Was it a Lear jet or a helicopter? An apartment or an oceanfront estate?

His schemes, the police say, were simple and always the same: stock deals, easy loans, dine and dash. His targets were from New York's anonymous moneyed class -- not the A-listers, but people of position and wealth, people who should have known better: stockbrokers, business owners, restaurateurs, Upper East Side socialites, landlords, real estate agents.

When he skipped bail in August, charged in East Hampton with impersonation and running out on his $19,000 bed-and-breakfast tab, Christopher Rocancourt left behind a trail of more than a dozen angry acquaintances who felt as confused as they did betrayed.

Now, a frustrated crew of pursuers, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office to a New York private eye, are looking for Mr. Rocancourt, who they say has duped the rich on both coasts and abroad.

Some say Mr. Rocancourt (pronounced ROH-can-court) is nothing more than a common thief, a modern-day mountebank who used his Continental charms to pry nearly $900,000 from the hands of wealthy New Yorkers over the course of a single season. Others say he is a ruthless killer, one of the most dangerous criminals the public has never heard of.

But a complicated portrait of Mr. Rocancourt has emerged from interviews with those who thought they knew him best. By turns, he has been described as a bon vivant in love with the artful con and as a confused man searching his spiritual path. He could quote philosophers, calling Kierkegaard a messiah and Kant a crank, but also spent time reading trashy self-help books. He lived on other people's money, spending lavishly on friends, but was often miserable after nights out on the town.

He had an unimposing look -- short, slight and nervously intense -- but frequently traveled with beautiful women on his arm. He claimed he had been born to wealth, but once told a confidant that he was a doctor who considered it his job to "cure the rich of greed."

The authorities have been tracking Mr. Rocancourt, 33, on four continents for more than a decade. He is suspected of bilking the well-to-do out of millions in East Hampton, Beverly Hills, Miami, San Francisco and Hong Kong. Investigators say they have tied him to a diamond-smuggling ring in Zaire and a violent jewelry store robbery in Geneva. The police say they believe he shot the bodyguard of a dangerous drug dealer during a wild highway shootout in West Hollywood. They say he is often armed and always one step ahead of the law.

"He's a criminal, a fugitive on the run, and he needs to go to jail," said George Mueller, the supervising investigator for the Los Angeles district attorney's office, who said he became so familiar to Mr. Rocancourt that the suspect once taunted him by asking after his children and quoting his home address.

But when Mr. Rocancourt himself was asked last week, through an intermediary, to assess his chances of being caught, the intermediary quoted him as saying: "I'm in Venezuela. I'm doing fine. I'll be back."

It was already deep in barbecue season this summer, the police say, when Mr. Rocancourt started working on the residents of a four-bedroom home with a tennis court, swimming pool and acre plot a mile from the Atlantic Ocean in Water Mill, N.Y.

Tom Gregory, who owns the home, remembers when his housemate, Corine Eeltink, brought Mr. Rocancourt around, introducing him as Christopher Rockefeller.

"I thought, 'Of the Rockefeller Rockefellers?' " Mr. Gregory, a Manhattan stockbroker, recalled. "I knew that Corine gave massages to the rich and infamous out in the Hamptons, so I figured it was all right."

Mr. Gregory was having trouble paying for his home and was thinking of selling it to cut his losses. He said he told Mr. Rocancourt as much over a leisurely lunch and several games of tennis.

Though Mr. Rocancourt had to borrow a set of tennis whites and was clumsy on the court, Mr. Gregory said he never thought twice when his guest offered to lend him money to buy the house. He was American aristocracy. Every time his cell phone rang, his obsequious right-hand man, who called himself Joseph Dante, answered. It was always another Kennedy or English royal on the line.

The loan called for Mr. Rocancourt to wire $500,000 into Mr. Gregory's bank account in exchange for $50,000 cash up front. The deal was celebrated that night over Asian cuisine at the Hamptons restaurant Tsunami and continued in the V.I.P. room of the adjacent nightclub N/V, where Dom Perignon and top-shelf Cognac were poured with a generous hand.

In the end, Mr. Rocancourt never forwarded the $500,000, the authorities say, although he made off with Mr. Gregory's cash. He also took Ms. Eeltink for $14,000, she claims. He even left the $7,000 restaurant and nightclub tab unpaid.

The Rockefeller Foundation says there is no family member named Christopher. The French authorities say Christopher Rocancourt was born on July 16, 1967, in Honfleur, France, a tiny fishing village on the Normandy coast where local legend holds that buried treasure lies, forever out of reach, at the bottom of the murky bay.

From 1987 to 1992, Mr. Rocancourt was investigated in Paris in connection with crimes ranging from check-kiting to forgery while using the name Prince Galitzine Christo. The Swiss authorities say they believe he helped arrange the armed theft of gems worth more than 400,000 francs from a jewelry store in Geneva in 1991.

On June 9, 1993, Mr. Rocancourt was arrested by the F.B.I. in Las Vegas and extradited to Switzerland, where he was detained for a year. Unable to prove his involvement in the jewel theft, the Swiss authorities eventually banished him until Feb. 28, 2016.

It was a few years later, the authorities in Los Angeles say, that Mr. Rocancourt landed in Beverly Hills, taking an opulent suite in the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. He cruised Sunset Strip in a gray Ferrari. The authorities say he passed himself off as the son of Dino De Laurentiis, the Italian movie mogul who produced "King Kong."

Mr. Rocancourt was often seen with his wife, a former Playboy playmate named Pia Reyes, with whom he has a son, Zeus. His entourage included a right-hand man and bodyguard, Ali Amghar, a former Algerian military officer known as Benny.

Mr. Amghar eventually wound up cooperating with the authorities. Among the schemes the Los Angeles district attorney's office says he revealed was a plan to smuggle diamonds out of a mine in Zaire.

Although the United States Customs Service investigated Mr. Rocancourt for more than a year, they could never make anything stick. "He's definitely good at what he does," said Special Agent Thomas Chumley, who ran the case. "He's smooth."

It took until Dec. 5, 1997, for Mr. Mueller of the Los Angeles district attorney's office to file a case against Mr. Rocancourt. He was not charged with smuggling, but with printing false passports with the help of two State Department employees and a woman who is the niece of the president of Gabon. He was freed on $100,000 bail in March 1998, and never returned to court.

Associates said Mr. Rocancourt spent the next two years gallivanting across the globe. He had no problem making money wherever he went. "You could drop him into Nigeria, and in three weeks he would own the place," one friend said.

Mr. Rocancourt managed to fly beneath the radar until this summer, when rumors began to circulate around the Hamptons about "Rockefeller." The jilted lovers and bounced checks and broken promises were catching up to him. Perhaps the most absurd encounter came at a Southampton soiree given by the Spanish painter Gines Serran-Pagan.

It was late July when Mr. Rocancourt, wearing someone else's tennis clothes, dropped by Mr. Serran-Pagan's gallery. Within 20 minutes, he had picked out six paintings priced altogether at more than a half-million dollars, waxing poetic about one particular piece, "Sunrise Over Quilin." All he needed, he said, was the number of Mr. Serran-Pagan's overseas bank account to make the deposit, according to Mr. Serran-Pagan.

The Spaniard demurred, but offered to discuss it over wine and was mortified to discover that his good stock was depleted. All he had left was some cheap red in a clay vessel.

"I was so embarrassed," Mr. Serran-Pagan said. "I said: 'Oh, my God! And a Rockefeller.' Well, he sniffed it once or twice and called it exquisite.

"That and the French accent. I knew he wasn't a Rockefeller."

Nonetheless, Mr. Rocancourt charmed the Spaniard, and over the next several weeks they met often to discuss Sartre and Nietzsche. Mr. Rocancourt spoke intelligently about the economic future of China. He knew the work of the Spanish painter Pissaro.

But cracks began to show in Mr. Rocancourt's mask. In the guest book, he signed two different addresses. He ate like a Neanderthal. "He had a street edge about him," the painter said. "I was suspicious, but I liked him. He was a dreamer, a surrealist like Dali."

Mr. Serran-Pagan wanted in on the masquerade. So he arranged a dinner party: the artist turning the tables on the con artist. The guest list included the daughter of Sony's president, two heiresses to a Greek shipping fortune and an international art dealer. In reality, the daughter of the Sony president was Natsuko Utsumi, a Japanese photographer. The art dealer was Peter Fazio, an electrician. And one of the shipping heiresses was Maria Eftimiades, a reporter for People, who wrote an article about the encounter for the Aug. 21 issue of New York magazine.

Mr. Rocancourt brought a buxom blonde and his assistant, Mr. Dante. By candlelight, Mr. Serran-Pagan said, he talked up some hot stock deals, until the Greek heiress snapped his photo. Mr. Dante shielded his boss as if a grenade had just been tossed onto the table. He pulled out a wad of $100 bills and tried in vain to buy the film.

The party broke up early in the morning, with Mr. Rocancourt promising to return to buy "Sunrise Over Quilin." He was arrested four days later.

"He hated the nouveau riche," Mr. Serran-Pagan said. "They were cave men, a dirty new species, and he derived pleasure by cheating them with their own greed."

When the police picked up Mr. Rocancourt on Aug. 2, they already suspected him of being a flimflam man, but they had yet to discover his true identity. Within hours, he was free on $45,000 bail. He left traveling on a passport with the name Fabien Ortuno.

"He was charming and fascinating and living his own movie out there on the edge," Mr. Serran-Pagan said. "He's committing suicide in the most beautiful way."

City News Service

Passport Fraud

LOS ANGELES

A French citizen who lived in Beverly Hills denied today taking part in a bogus passport scam involving himself, two federal workers and the niece of the president of Gabon.
Deputy District Attorney Richard Rosenthal argued successfully to raise Christopher Theiry Daniel Rocancourt's bail from $100,000 to $250,000, based on a finding that he would likely try to flee the country if released. The defendant remained in custody after his arraignment in Los Angeles Municipal Court, where he is due to return for an April 1 preliminary hearing. A judge will determine at that time if prosecutors have enough evidence to hold the 30-year-old defendant for trial.
Rocancourt was charged, along with U.S. Passport Agency supervisors Felicia Y. Fuller and Bonita Y. Jones, and Lea Amina Dabany, the 25-year-old niece of the president of the African country Gabon. The four are accused of conspiring to manufacture and distribute false passports, Rosenthal said. A false passport was made for Dabany on Nov. 7, and a false passport was made for Rocancourt on Dec. 20, 1996, in exchange for
$2,000, the prosecutor alleges.
Fuller, 36, Jones, 34, and Dabany are charged with conspiring to manufacture and distribute false government documents, and with false
government documents activity and conspiracy.
Rocancourt faces charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute false government documents.
Fuller and Jones pleaded innocent to the charges and are being held on $50,000 bail each. Both are from Los Angeles.
Rosenthal wants bail set at $75,000 for Dabany, who was living in Encino but is now believed to be in Gabon. Authorities are attempting to contact her there.
Fuller, Jones and Dabany face up to six years and eight months in prison if convicted, Rosenthal said. Rocancourt faces up to five years behind bars.

Agence France resse

Informations Generales

Un escroc francais ratisse la region chic des Hamptons

Un escroc francais est parvenu cet ete a soutirer de fortes sommes a des membres de la haute societe new-yorkaise, en vacances a Long Island, avant d'etre arrete, libere sous caution et de disparaitre, a indique la police.

Se faisant passer pour un heritier de la famille Rockefeller, en depit de son accent francais, un jeune homme d'environ 30 ans a l'identite encore incertaine s'est fait preter de fortes sommes, sous promesse de gains rapides, par des membres de la jet-set locale passant comme tous les ans leurs vacances dans la region ultra-chic des Hamptons.

"Nous avons ete alertes le 1er aout par une victime qui avait decouvert son manege", explique le detective Gerard Lawson, du East Hampton Village Police Department. "Nous l'avons arrete a la sortie du East Hampton Gym. Ils s'est presente sous le nom de Fabien Ortuno, avec un passeport qui s'est avere faux, mais nous pensons que son vrai nom est Christophe Rocancourt".

Utilisant de multiples identites, dont celle de Christopher Rockefeller, Christophe Rocancourt est parvenu a se faire "preter" pour un total d'environ 250.000 dollars par des residents des Hamptons, rencontres dans des clubs de sport ou des restaurants de luxe.

Comme tout bon escroc, il avait du bagout, inspirait confiance et menait grand train. Il affirmait etre l'ami du president Clinton, du gouverneur de l'Etat de New York George Pataki, du sultan de Brunei ou du prince Albert de Monaco.

Avant que l'enquete ne puisse progresser, il a regle en liquide les 45.000 dollars de sa caution et a disparu.

"Il devait comparaitre le 9 aout, le juge a prolonge la date au 7 septembre mais il ne s'est pas presente , ajoute M. Lawson. "En fait, c'est un client serieux. Nous aimerions bien l'attraper".

Selon l'edition de lundi du New York Post, qui cite des sources judiciaires en Californie, Christophe Rocancourt aurait agi de meme sur la cote ouest, se faisant passer un parent d'un grand producteur d'Hollywood.

Il serait egalement implique dans une fusillade dans une boite de nuit et dans un gros vol de bijoux en Suisse.

Personnellement je ne vois pas en quoi la diffusion du message reléguant ROCANCOURT au second plan et présentant une compatriote (même s'appelant BONGO) ayant des démélés judiciaires, aurait avoir avec le combat du BDP.

Moi je trouve ça nul et lâche parce que la cible principale ici c'est Omar BONGO.

Parlez de ses enfants qui sont aux affaires certes, mais si c'est dénicher des faits divers concernant ceux qui vivent leur vie en marge n'ayant d'autres défauts que d'être né BONGO, alors c'est bien, allez y !

Votre attitude pose tout de même la question de la place de la famille BONGO après lui.

Allez !

Mais voyons cher Medar, reprenez vous!

De deux choses l’une; vous ne pouvez pas a la fois exiger que cette affaire soit traitee comme une affaire purement privee et oublier que cette compatriote beneficie du statut diplomatique a cause de son apartenance a la famille Bongo. Compte tenu de ce statut diplomatique, la tenue de cette demoiselle a l'etranger nous concerne tous car elle est en quelque sorte une representante du Gabon. Si vous ne me croyez pas, reseignez vous dans les ambassades. On vous dira que toute personne munie d’un passeport diplomatique est consideree comme representante directe ou indirecte de son pays d’origine. Ce n’est pas pour rien que son passeport a ete exhibee sur CNN. Pour ces raisons, je trouve tout a fait justifie de donner aux Gabonais le compte rendu des faits (ou mefaits) d’une des leur ayant statut de protection diplomatique. Il revient aux Gabonais d’interpreter cette information comme bon leur semble. Rassurez vous que si le neveux de Chirac se livrait a des escroqueries, le Monde, Liberation, le Figaro, L’Evenement du Jeudi, Paris-Match et que sais-je en informeraient les Francais. Lorsqu' on dirige un etat, il ya des aspects moraux non negligeables dont il faut tenir compte. Les membres de sa famille ne peuvent se permettre n'importe quoi car c'est l'image du pays qui en prend un coup. Mais ca vous le saviez deja.

Non a la censure
Oui a l’information, aussi inconfortable pour Medar qu'elle soit.

Monsieur medar,

Comment pouvez-vous même pendant une demi-seconde défendre cette Lea Bongo. Soit vous êtes un membre de la famille et vous êtes presque excusable parce qu'aveuglé par l'amour que vous lui portez, soit vous êtes tout simplement un inconscient.

Omar Bongo fournit des efforts démesurés (couronné malheureusement de succès) pour faire du Gabon une "république privée". En effet, comment qualifier une Nation où la nièce (ou sa fille adoptive) du Président peut établir un Passeport diplomatique à qui le désire? Monsieur Medar, n'este il pas honteux de voir le nom de son pays traîné ainsi dans la boue? Et quand notre ami news-man titre son article , "le fruit ne tombe jamais loin de l'arbre", il a raison. Figurez-vous qu'au lendemain des élections présidentielles de 1998, 5 vrais Passeports Gabonais portant une photo identique, mais avec des noms différents ont été exhibés sur Canal +, une chaîne de télévision Française. Ainsi Bongo sans vergogne, dans le but de remporter les élections n'avait pas hésité à faire établir des centaines de vraies faux Passeports. Monsieur medar, il existe donc des similitudes entre les actes de cette Lea et ceux de son Oncle, auquel cas, il est tout a fait légitime de les associer.

Cette affaire montre très clairement un abus de pouvoir de la famille Bongo et permet à l'opinion de constater dans les faits que Bongo et ses proches n'ont aucun respect pour notre pays.

Fraternellement
Phil Bounda

Tu detestes tellement Omar que tu voudrais maintenant attribuer un lien de parente entre tous les gabonais qui deconnent a l'etranger a Bongo.Enleve les excrements qui sont dans tes yeux et lis bien ceci..."Lea Dabany"n'est pas une Bongo de la famille du president mais une parente du cote des Assele et autres Patience.Cesse tes diffamations.Newsman a bien fait de nous faire partager les deboires de cette fille...et d'abord meme cette Lea n'a pas 22 ans mais au moins 33 ou 35 ans.

Cher Monsieur, toujours fidèle au poste lorsqu'il s'agit de venir défendre Omar Bongo et ses proches. Ainsi, je perds la boule lorsque j'associe les indélicatesses de Léa Bongo ou Dabany ou Assélé à celle du fossoyeur de la République, Omar Bongo. Je m'amuse de vos réactions, vous autres les Bongoistes. Au début vous parliez de diffamation lorsque le news-man a rappporté cette affaire, puis peu à peu lorsque vous avez finalement compris que cette Lea avait réellement été confondue dans cette histoire de Passeport, vous vous êtes mis alors à nier toute relation entre cette compatriote et la famille Bongo. Alors aujourd'hui les Assélé et les Bongo ne sont plus de la même famille si je vous suis bien? Elle est bien loin l'époque où Assélé Jean Boniface revendiquait sa parenté avec l'autre détourneuse (les clients de la BGL s'en souviennent encore…) devenue Patience ; parenté grâce à laquelle tout ou presque lui était permis. Les Bongo et les Assélé sont de la même famille puisque Omar était le mari de Joséphine. A qui voulez-vous faire avaler qu'aujourd'hui il s'agit de deux familles différentes. Vous êtes peut être trop jeune pour vous souvenir ou alors vous faites preuve d'amnésie en ce qui concèrne de l'époque où les Ouanis, Mpouo, Labouba, Assélé et beaucoup d'autres faisaient la loi au Gabon et chantaient à tout vent qu'ils étaient les frères d'Omar Bongo, le revendiquant comme si c'était un trait de noblesse.

Vous verrez lorsque Bongo tombera, beaucoup renieront cette parenté...

Et puis de toutes les manières tous les journaux qui ont révélé cette affaire ont toujours mentionné que cette Lea était la parente de Bongo. Celui là même qui a trafiqué des passeports pour être réélu!