![]() It’s not clear if Bernardini has an attorney. Simon & Schuster has suspended Bernardini and stated that they are “shocked and horrified” over the allegations, Forbes reports. “This real-life storyline now reads as a cautionary tale, with the plot twist of Barnardini facing federal criminal charges for his misdeeds.” Attorney Damian Williams said in the press release. He was charged with wire fraud and identify theft it was alleged that he had poached as many as 160 aliases to steal unpublished manuscripts from publishers and authors. “Filippo Bernardini allegedly impersonated publishing industry individuals in order to have authors, including a Pulitzer prize winner, send him prepublication manuscripts for his own benefit,” U.S. He was met, instead, by the FBI, who arrested him on the spot. ![]() This is a business full of resentment as well, and in that sense, it becomes a good story.”īernardini could face up to 24 years behind bars if convicted. “If you try to find financial and economic gain, it’s of course hard to see,” said Daniel Sandström a Swedish publisher that was targeted multiple times, “But if the game is psychological, a kind of mastery or feeling of superiority, it’s easier to visualise. NEW YORK (AP) Authorities say they’ve solved a publishing industry whodunit with the arrest Wednesday of a man accused of numerous literary heists in recent years, allegedly impersonating others in the industry to amass a veritable library of unpublished works. None of the manuscripts that Bernardini obtained were ever published online, reports the Guardian. A mysterious fraudster who impersonated publishers and agents to steal book manuscripts in an international phishing scam may have finally been caught, with the FBI arresting a 29-year-old man at. FBI arrests man accused of stealing manuscripts A mystery that has shaken the literary world for years the theft of hundreds of unpublished manuscripts may finally be about to be solved. Margaret Atwood, for example, told The Bookseller in 2019, that there had "concerted efforts to steal the manuscript" of her book “The Testaments,” the BBC reports. Bernardini in turn, allegedly “impersonated hundreds of distinct people and engaged in hundreds of unique efforts to fraudulently obtain electronic copies of manuscripts that he was not entitled to.”įor years, authors have complained of a phishing scheme which robbed them of their intellectual property. He is alleged to have created the accounts by registering more than 160 internet domains “that were crafted to be confusingly similar to the real entities that they were impersonating, including only minor typographical errors that would be difficult for the average recipient to identity during a cursory review," said investigators. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.īernardini, who works for Simon & Schuster UK in London, allegedly began posing as other publishing professionals using fake email accounts in 2016. ![]() The FBI arrested Italian citizen Filippo Bernardini, 29, on Wednesday and charged him with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft “in connection with a multi-year scheme to impersonate individuals involved in the publishing industry in order to fraudulently obtain hundreds of prepublication manuscripts of novels and other forthcoming books,” states a press release from the U.S. ![]() District Attorney’s Office said he would appear Thursday before a magistrate judge in Manhattan.An employee of Simon & Schuster UK has been arrested for allegedly stealing hundreds of unpublished manuscripts. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Kennedy International Airport, was charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in the U.S. On Wednesday, the FBI arrested Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old, London-based rights coordinator for Simon & Schuster UK, saying that he “impersonated, defrauded, and attempted to defraud, hundreds of individuals” over five or more years, obtaining hundreds of unpublished manuscripts in the process.īernardini, who was arrested after landing at John F. The thefts and attempted thefts occurred primarily over email, by a fraudster impersonating publishing professionals and targeting authors, editors, agents and literary scouts who might have drafts of novels and other books. As reported, 29-year-old Filippo Bernardini, a citizen of Italy, was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday after touching down at New York City’s JFK Airport. They were perplexing thefts, lacking a clear motive or payoff, and they happened in the genteel, not particularly lucrative world of publishing: Someone was stealing unpublished book manuscripts. A man has been arrested in connection to a phishing scam that stole and attempted to steal hundreds of unpublished book manuscripts from authors such as Margaret Atwood and Ethan Hawke.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |