Eccentric millionaire killed in LA fire was ‘imposter’ posing as member of Rothschild dynasty

The eccentric millionaire killed in a Los Angeles house fire last week was likely an “imposter” posing as a member of the ultra-wealthy Rothschild banking family, according to a new report.

The mystery man who went by William de Rothschild, 87 —  found dead in his charred Hollywood Hills abode on Nov. 27 — had assumed the prestigious identity despite having no family ties to the Jewish dynasty, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

“My brother is not a Rothschild, as far as I know,” Richard Kauffman, 78, of Oregon, told the paper. “It’s odd, because I thought he had died years ago.”

Born in Colorado as William Alfred Kauffman, he inexplicably changed his name to William de Rothschild in 1985 and fooled friends and neighbors for years — complete with a flashy collection of Ferraris and Jaguars, the paper reported.

Richard Kauffman said his brother “disappeared” in the 1960s or ’70s and sometimes played fast and loose with the truth.

“I could see him taking the Rothschild name,” Kauffman said.“My brother was kind of a mysterious character when I knew him.”

Their family is not Jewish, he said, and there is no “William” in the billionaire family’s official genealogy.

The real Rothschilds, who are originally from Frankfurt, Germany, have long dealt with imposters trying to boost their financial status by assuming their name.

The clan long dominated European banking — largely in the 18th and 19th centuries — and was once thought to have garnered the largest private fortune on the planet.

In his 1985 name-change documents, de Rothschild — who grew up in Salem, Oregon, and attended the University of Oregon — wrote that he wanted “to take my family name, that I prefer to Kauffman.”

“It would simplify my life greatly, taking the name from my mothers side,” he wrote in the legal filing, which was granted.

One neighbor who knew de Rothschild for years said he “came off as genuinely educated” and “very polite.”

“He carried himself like I think a Rothschild would,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be named. “The money is there, whether it is Rothschild money or not.”

His motivation for assuming the identity remains unclear — since there’s no evidence that he used his identity to publicly to seek money or fame.

“There’s an assumption that anyone named Rothschild has access to unlimited amounts of money and power, and it attracts both grifters and people who want to get into those circles,” Mike Rothschild, author of “Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories,”  wrote in a blog post this week.

“Why the fire victim might have used the name is still a mystery,” wrote Rothschild, who is not related to the wealthy family.

More recently, the Rothschild family became a lightning rod for wild conspiracy theories — including one claiming “Jewish space lasers” caused California wildfires — which was sparked by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2018.

The cause of the blaze that killed de Rothschild, at his $1 million home in Laurel Canyon, is currently under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Fire Department.