INSIDE THE MINDS OF CON ARTISTS
Can a con artist be rehabilitated?  
Do they have any remorse for the lives they destroy?  
In their own words and actions, they give you the answers below.

Master con artist who claimed to be a Rockefeller says he never stole - he just borrowed... Christopher Rocancourt explained the difference in a 2001 tv interview from his jail cell

Throughout a conversation with the French-born con artist, which was taped from a British Columbia jail cell where he awaited trial for participation in a B.C. business scam, Christopher Rocancourt argued that reneging on a loan is not a crime.  Rocancourt is also wanted in Europe and the U.S. for fraud and theft involving millions of dollars.
Mr. Rocancourt does all he can in the interview to convince viewers he is a far cry from the heartless criminal police have portrayed him to be.

In fact, if anyone is to blame for the victims' losses, he says it is the victims themselves. After all, they were gullible enough to believe him.

"I never stole. Never," he says. "It's like I say to you, 'Let me borrow your tie right now.' Well, you say, 'OK, that is my tie. I'll let you borrow it.' But today I don't give you back your tie. I did broke a promise, yeah? That make me a thief?"

Mr. Kroft responds by saying: "Yeah, you stole my tie."

"No, I ask you," Mr. Rocancourt responds. "I did borrow it. But that doesn't mean I'm a thief. I didn't grab it. I didn't take it. I didn't steal it."....

Rocancourt, who has used multiple aliases in order to deceive his victims, says it is not a crime to pretend to be someone else.

"I say I like to change my name," he says. "An actor change his name, an actor pretend to be somebody. You don't go prosecute because he change his name or because he pretend to be somebody, so you should prosecute all Hollywood."

Read the full story in The National Post Online: http://www.subtleny.150m.com/Chris/National%20Post%204-13-02.htm

Con Artist says "If nobody got hurt, if nobody got caught, where was the harm?" in a 2003 book about his life as a multifaceted swindler who bilked Hollywood stars and billionaires alike

California "entrepreneur" Bruce McNall told journalist Michael D'Antonio, co-author of McNall's biography, "Fun While It Lasted: My Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune" that he "didn't bilk little old ladies out of their savings...I took money from faceless, nameless banks, and given how most people feel about banks, a lot of you might take some secret pleasure in what I did."

McNall, who was owner of the Los Angeles Kings and the chairman of the National Hockey League's Board of Governors, was striking deals worth $27 million with Disney Studios and the founder of Blockbuster Video even while he was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Mr. McNall spent four years in prison for bank fraud and is on probation until 2006 after two decades of living an opulent life supported by his dealings in stolen antiques, falsifying invoices and overstating his income to bankers by tens of millions of dollars.  His sentence ordered him to repay his creditors, but, according to the book, he still owes millions.

"Hard Work is Only For Suckers," Career Con Artist States in Interview

In a personal interview with a member of an international law enforcement organization, Professionals Against Confidence Crime, a career con artist tells the interviewer that he has no qualms about his line of "work" because "Hard work is only for suckers."  Read the full story and more revealing insights into con artists' philosophy of life and why they have a character disease that is rarely cured: http://www.pac-c.org/con%27s%20mentality.htm
The Book "How to Become a Successful Con Artist" Found in the Belongings of Con Artist After He Defrauds Single Mother and Flees with Her $15,000

Christopher Lee Luther, 32, (CUFF ID NO. 881) already had a criminal history of burglary and check fraud in Texas when he met a young, divorced waitress one night in July 2003 at a Jacksonville, Florida restaurant.  The two young people liked each other and very quickly established a relationship.  Luther convinced the young mother that he was a stock broker and he could make her $15,000 savings grow quickly.  She was touched that he would want to help her when he had known her for only a few weeks.  As soon as Luther had the money in hand, he disappeared in her rented car. 

Several weeks later he was located in South Carolina where he had rented a basement room in a home.  The car had been tracked by the repo company through the GPS.  Although the car was recovered, Luther had fled when the police showed up at his residence and he never returned to collect his belongings.  According to the landlord, the only thing he took was a briefcase...which no doubt contained the victim's money.  However, the landlord said she and the police went through his belongings to find clues and discovered indisputable evidence of premeditated fraud - the book, "How to Become a Successful Con Artist."

The young mother had known Luther under an alias, but his true identity was uncovered by CUFF from information he left behind containing addresses of his family.  Fortunately for the victim, Luther hadn't been a very quick study.  

Ten months later, on 5/10/2004, CUFF was informed by a detective in Austin, TX that the subject had been apprehended in Louisiana in April 2004 and was being held pending extradition to several jurisdictions for scams that had been committed since stealing the money from the Florida victim.  The young Florida mother will have her day in court, too, as the Jacksonville Police Department is one of the jurisdictions seeking to prosecute Luther.

Con Artist James Hogue, Subject of 1999 Documentary "Con Artist," told producer "Deception is like being in a play...being a character."

The Con Artist Next Door
By Nancy Lofholm
Denver Post Staff Writer

For three years, a man of many IDs fooled those in the Telluride, CO area, allegedly stealing nearly 7,000 items....Read the story about the con artist who earned a track scholarship to Princeton University using the identity of a deceased infant and continued his deception for years until his last arrest in 1/06 in Tucson, AZ 
Study Shows Employee Theft Is Fueled By Debt, Greed, Boredom, A Lack of Structure in Life and Temporary Insanity

Fraud by workers against their employers is costing UK firms more than £2 billion a year, a new report published today (11/21/2005) has revealed.

Convicted fraudsters claimed that lax financial controls make it easy to rip off companies, snatching up to £25 million in cash.

One man interviewed for the report said: "I was living the high life. I was keeping up with the lifestyle. The three words that sum it up are lies, pride and greed."

Another man said he stole £250,000 by issuing and signing off spurious invoices for up to £75,000 and paying them directly into his private savings account.

Mike Adlem, managing director of Protiviti, the risk management firm that conducted the study, said: "Most incidences of fraud go unreported as most companies choose to deal with the problem internally.

"Add to this the phenomenal amount of fraud that goes unnoticed and you soon realize that any figures we have are just the tip of the iceberg.

"A conservative estimate of the cost of employee fraud to UK listed companies alone would be £2bn."

Read the full article in the Scottsman.com.

 

"