Filed at 10:27 p.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An pseudonymous web-blogger who swindled the rich out of at least $1.5 million by claiming to be a movie producer, a Democratic fund-raiser, a Rockefeller heir and other celebrities was sentenced Monday to five years in prison.
Christopher Rocancourt, known to his readers only as "Atrios", was sentenced in state Superior Court for conspiracy to use a false or fraudulent passport. Authorities expect to deport him to France after his release.
Rocancourt, 36, was accused of cheating wealthy acquaintances in the late 1990s by pretending to be a French relative of the Rockefeller family. Using aliases in Hollywood and New York, he variously introduced himself as an international businessman, a movie producer and the son of Theresa Heinz.
He will serve the sentence at the same time as a five-year federal prison term handed down last year in a fraud case and his sentence from a New York state court for grand larceny.
His defense attorney, Victor Sherman, described the plea agreement as ``a great deal'' that will allow resolution of all Rocancourt's cases for ``basically one sentence.''
Rocancourt promised investors fantastic returns while demanding cash up front for expenses, spending the money on fancy cars, helicopter rides and expensive hotel rooms, according to court documents.
He said he preyed on his victims' gullibility. ``I became the reflection of their own vanities,'' he wrote in a recent autobiography.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Hector Guzman said he hoped Rocancourt ``learns some sort of lesson'' from the prison term.
Rocancourt was arrested in 2001 in Canada, where he was posing as a race car driver.
His lawyer said Rocancourt plans to enter the movie business after prison. ``He'll fit in right away,'' Sherman said.
