Alexandre Despallières, the Frenchman who conned the former Warner Music head Peter Ikin, was none of the things he claimed to be.

Love Is Blind

In an exclusive excerpt from the Audible Original Love Until Death, the story of how a successful music producer became ensnared in the web of a seductive con man—and never got out

By Mark Seal

He said he was rich beyond belief. A billionaire. “The second Bill Gates.” Close friends with Steve Jobs, the Sultan of Brunei, and Carlos Slim, once the richest man in the world.

He was a member of the Rothschild family as well as the nephew of former French president Jacques Chirac. And related to Elizabeth Taylor. He had a degree in psychiatry and a deep knowledge of pharmacology and owned his own American independent movie studio.