Nicholas Rockefeller, born and legally known as Spiro Marion Pavlovich, Jr., was an American attorney who established a longstanding career in international commerce, banking, and investing under an assumed identity. He was vice chairman and chief legal officer of the RockVest Group of Investors.

Posing as Nicholas Rockefeller while implying ties to the famed Rockefeller family, he served as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Advisory Board of RAND, the Corporate Advisory Board of the Pacific Council on International Relations, the Board of the Western Justice Center Foundation, and the Central China Development Council, and as a participant in the World Economic Forum and the Aspen Institute. He was also a director of the Pacific Rim Cultural Foundation and a member of the boards of visitors of the law schools of the University of Oregon and of Pepperdine University.

Rockefeller claimed to have been born 6 June 1956 in California. He also claimed to be, per the Daily Mail, "the great grand-nephew of Czar Nicholas of Russia, a relative of Spanish King Juan Carlos, a Rhodes Scholar of Oxford, a NATO intelligence official, and a former Nixon administration employee." At times, he posed as a Southern aristocrat; for much of his life, he drove luxury cars, even when living in small apartments. He was known for showing up uninvited at the funerals and other ceremonies of dignitaries, often presenting himself as an "emissary" of the Rockefeller family.

Education

As Spiro H. Pavlovich, Rockefeller attended Jesuit High School in New Orleans, graduating in the Class of 1964. He was a member of the Philelectic Society, which focused on performing plays, speech and debate, and literary readings. In 1963, he performed in "the Phil's" one-act Henri Gheron play The Parade at Devil's Bridge; he was pictured in the yearbook having his stage makeup applied. The yearbook also recognized the Phil for the "effort they had put out to let the truth be known".

Rockefeller first gained admission to Harvard Law School under his real name by forging transcripts stating he had graduated from Tulane University; he had attended Tulane but did not graduate. He had nearly earned his law degree before being caught by a law firm where he interviewed; the university quietly expelled him after he told the law firm that, amongst other things, he was a great-grandnephew of Czar Nicholas of Russia.

In 1971, he returned to New Orleans and enrolled at the Louisiana State University at New Orleans as Jason Scott Cord, using his real Tulane transcript but with the Cord name attached. The university -- which shortly thereafter became New Orleans University and is today the University of New Orleans -- said his transcript was "one of the best [they'd] ever seen", and he graduated from the university with honors in 1973.

That fall, Rockefeller returned to Harvard, this time as Jason Scott Cord, an alumnus of the University of New Orleans. He wore a goatee and glasses and always sat at the back of each classroom so as to not be identified by former classmates or professors. For the 1973-1974, he attended Harvard Business School; he then returned to Harvard Law in 1974. He also brought his wife, Monette Caulffield, a fellow Louisiana native, who posed as Cary Monica Cabot and was admitted to Harvard Business School. While at Harvard this second time, Rockefeller claimed to be a Rhodes Scholar, a pilot, a former paratrooper, a fomer CIA agent, an "undercover" Nixon administration official, a relative of Spain's Prince Juan Carlos, an attendee at Francisco Franco's funeral, and more. One of his claims -- to have been a college football placekicker in Louisiana -- was again caught during a law firm interview, leading to him once again being reported to the university.

He and his wife were reported to the FBI due to them having obtained federal student loans under their false identities. After being arrested for loan fraud in December 1975, Rockefeller was found mentally incompetent to stand trial due to stress; his wife received a suspended sentence with probation. Rockefeller recovered from his stress shortly after his charges were dismissed.

In 1984, Rockefeller was admitted to Yale Law School, this time as Nicholas A. Rockefeller. Classmate and future White House ethics chief Richard Painter later said:

"He was very approachable, more so than you'd think someone would be from a well-known family. Nobody ever got a handle on who exactly he was related to, though he made references to Nelson Rockefeller. That seemed right because Nelson had a reputation for various relationships. I think at one point he said a car he had, a red Mercedes, once belonged to the Vice President. ... He implied he had been at Oxford for his undergraduate, something about a Swiss boarding school he went to, and had also been in Europe with a military NATO force. He implied he had maybe been in an intelligence role."

Classmates from Yale stated that he did the work easily, realizing later that that was likely because he had already done it twice at Harvard. He graduated and worked as clerk for federal Ninth Circuit Judge Dorothy Nelson.

Career

Using the prestige of his assumed name and the many connections he had formed at Yale, Rockefeller quickly ingratiated himself into the higher levels of U.S. society.

Per the Daily Mail, Rockefeller's con was successful enough that he "dined with President George H.W. Bush, befriended top White House officials, was pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Bill Clinton, and claimed to control a fund of hundreds of millions of dollars." In 1990, he showed up uninvited at the funeral of Ronald Reagan's Attorney General William Smith and was able to hug the grieving widow by saying he was there to represent the Rockefeller family. At a 2003 bar association dinner in Los Angeles, Rockefeller was seated at the head table with President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush. In 2005, he had a meeting with Han Zheng, then the mayor of Shanghai (now vice president of China), to work on a billion-dollar real estate development project.

The Daily Mail further notes that "Rockefeller got himself appointed to influential think tank the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy Advisory Board alongside real members of billionaire and blue-blooded families including Hyatt Hotel heir Anthony Pritzker and LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong. ... [H]is high-flying ties also included links with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A slide deck for his company, Rockefeller Resources International, pictures him sitting at an official one-on-one meeting with Xi Jinping, who later became the Chinese premier."

Per his self-written professional biography, Rockefeller's legal practice focused on "transactions with China’s largest banks, energy companies, communications entities and real estate enterprises as well as with China’s principal cities and leading provinces." He stated that he "was chosen as a board member of the Central China Construction and Development Commission and as a director of the Xiwai International School of Shanghai International University", and that he appeared numerous times on CCTV and other China [sic] media. Court documents filed after Rockefeller's death revealed that his firm was "run by Chinese nationals" who paid $30,000 per month for Rockefeller's office rent near Beverly Hills.

References

• http://nicholasrockefeller.net/ (dead link)
• https://prabook.com/web/nicholas.rockefeller/2783670
• http://planetlive.org/nicholas_rockefeller_nick/
• https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62209/records/73826137
• https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/attorney/Licensee/Detail/165922
• https://x.com/anderscorr/status/1881091561540202817 from Anders Corr, PhD. here's a prominent China-linked "Nicholas Rockefeller" who may not be all he claimed. According to a document filed on 1/15/2025 with the California Superior Court in LA, "Two lawyers, both Yale Law School classmates of the decedent who worked with and/or for him and may also have been his friends, are presently battling over who gets to control his remains and perhaps also administer his estate. One of the lawyers, Helen Kim, informed the court that she now believes Nicholas Rockefeller was not decedent’s real name, which she contends was instead Spiro Pavlovich. She contends that she has located numerous conflicting documents like birth certificates and driver’s licenses in his residence. She states that she has learned that he had a criminal record under his real name. She says law enforcement has taken fingerprints taken from his body and used them to confirm the decedent’s true identity. His alleged criminal record involves alleged fraud on Harvard Law School, where he allegedly gained admission in the 1970s using an assumed name before he attended Yale Law School starting in or around 1984."
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14386439/fake-Nicholas-roc... A high society imposter managed to pull off the hoax of a lifetime, scamming his way into Harvard Law School twice, then Yale, and later consorting with US presidents and world leaders by posing as a fake Rockefeller up until his death, DailyMail.com can reveal. For 40 years, Nicholas Rockefeller was known by his closest friends as an eccentric scion of the billionaire Rockefeller family with a Yale degree and partnerships at major US law firms. ...
• ”Tales of the Great Harvard Hoax.” The Boston Globe, February 22, 1976, Page 94. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-pavlovich/16705... : accessed March 2, 2025), continued on page 97 (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-tales-of-the-gr... )
• https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10568-85256267/jesuit-hi...
• https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10568-85256185/jesuit-hi... -- "Moderator Mr. Fernon puts finishing touches on Spiro Pavlovich's make-up for one-act play 'Parade at Devil's Bridge.'" Suggestion in the rest of the text that the play may have been performed at a statewide event in Lafayette and perhaps elsewhere.
• "Dropout From Tulane Entered Law School At Harvard?" Lakeland Ledger via OldNews.com, published 25 December 1975, p. 17A. < link > Accessed 2 March 2025.