That information was then automatically sent to his own email address. Arrests Man Accused of Stealing Unpublished Book Manuscripts. And he designed a webpage that mimicked a scouting company's website and asked users to enter a username and password. Prosecutors say he had more than 160 internet domains that were deliberately designed to be "confusingly similar" to the real pages.įor example, the federal authorities say Bernardini would replace the lower-case "m" with the two letters "rn" to make them appear similar. An Italian man has admitted to stealing more than 1,000 unpublished manuscripts, including from distinguished authors, solving. The scheme allegedly involved Bernardini creating fake email accounts and webpages that seemed to match real people in the publishing industry, including talent agents and people at publishing houses. And despite the elaborate nature of his scheme, it's still unclear what his motivation was. Bernardini was allegedly trying to steal other people's literary ideas for himself, but in the end he wasn't creative enough to get away with it," he said.īernardini did not immediately appear to have obtained legal representation. Publishers do all they can to protect those unpublished pieces because of their value," Michael Driscoll, the assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York office, said in a statement. "Unpublished manuscripts are works of art to the writers who spend the time and energy creating them. 2016 to July 2021, according to prosecutors. Arrests Man Accused of Stealing Unpublished Book Manuscripts: Filippo Bernardini, an Italian citizen who worked in publishing, was charged with wire fraud and identity theft for a scheme that. He obtained hundreds of unpublished manuscripts from Aug. The FBI arrested the suspect on Wednesday when he arrived at John.
He will appear in a federal court in Manhattan on Thursday.įederal authorities says Bernardini impersonated real people in the publishing industry to fraudulently obtain manuscripts of novels and other books, and notes about those books. In a shocking twist, the book thief notorious for allegedly stealing unpublished manuscripts via online trickery has been caught. Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old Italian citizen who was working for publishing company Simon & Schuster UK as a rights coordinator, was arrested on Wednesday as he arrived at John F. Now, the alleged fraudster is facing federal charges. 1, 2017, file photo traffic along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington streaks past the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters building.įor five years, a man who worked in publishing tricked authors and industry insiders into sending him hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, including one from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, according to federal authorities.
Fbi arrests man unpublished manuscripts full#
This is a business full of resentment as well, and in that sense, it becomes a good story.In this Nov. “But if the game is psychological, a kind of mastery or feeling of superiority, it’s easier to visualise. “If you try to find financial and economic gain, it’s of course hard to see,” Daniel Sandström, literary director of a Swedish publisher that was targeted multiple times, told Vulture last year. Some had suspected the individual was a literary scout, attempting to secure information to make film and television deals ahead of others. None of the books ever turned up online, and everything from celebrity releases to debut novels by unknown writers were targeted. Publishing industry figures and authorities have been stumped for years by possible motivations behind the phishing scam, with no ransom or blackmail demands ever materialising after manuscripts were mistakenly sent on. Simon & Schuster was not named in the indictment, and the Guardian understands it is not accused of wrongdoing. “The safekeeping of our authors’ intellectual property is of primary importance to Simon & Schuster, and for all in the publishing industry, and we are grateful to the FBI for investigating these incidents and bringing charges against the alleged perpetrator,” he added. Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. In a statement, a spokesperson for Simon & Schuster said the publisher was “shocked and horrified” by the allegations against Bernardini and that they had suspended him pending further information.
Those responsible created slightly tweaked email addresses to fool publishing figures, including replacing “t” with “f”, “q” with “g”, and using “r” and “n” to make “m”, as in They would use industry lingo, such as “ms” for manuscript, and demonstrated an understanding of the publishing process, which fooled some into handing over manuscripts and information about upcoming projects or film rights.
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