Rockefeller heir who attended business forum in Russia was a ‘fake’
The Rockefeller family has distanced itself from Michael Charles Rockefeller, who attended the Common Future business forum in Moscow in November and discussed with ministers, MPs and business representatives how achieve stable growth in the Russian economy.
26 year-old Michael Charles Rockefeller, one of the key speakers at the forum, who was described on the forum website as an heir to the famous American dynasty, has no link to the Rockefeller family, the Rockefeller Family Office told Forbes.
Michael Charles Rockefeller is not a descendant of John Rockefeller, and John’s brother Franklin had no male descendants who lived longer than a year, the family office explained.
Michael himself told Forbes that he had a different surname at birth, but later changed it to his “legitimate” surname. He refused to specify his former surname and the date when he officially became a Rockefeller, claiming that he wants to “protect his father’s personal life”.
Michael’s page has already been deleted from Wikipedia, and attempts to restore it have been blocked. Stanislav Kozlovsky, executive director of Wikimedia RU, explained to Forbes that the page was deleted because the person “did not meet the notability criteria”.
At the forum in Moscow, Michael Charles Rockefeller spoke alongside Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Natural Resources Dmitry Kobylkin, as well as members of parliament and business representatives.
Michael’s fiancée, a senior investor relations manager at the Synergy corporation (one of the organizers of the forum), told Forbes that the initiative to invite the “heir” came from Kobylkin, but later said that it was the organizing committee’s idea. A representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources said that the department had nothing to do with Rockefeller being invited.