An elusive thief stole hundreds of book manuscripts in an online scam. The culprit is an industry in [View all]

Also: Italian Citizen Arrested In Online Impersonation Scheme To Fraudulently Obtain Prepublication Manuscripts Of Novels And Other Books (U.S. Attorney's Office - Southern District of New York)

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Source: Washington Post

An elusive thief stole hundreds of book manuscripts in an online scam. The culprit is an industry insider, FBI says.

By Jaclyn Peiser
Today at 5:56 a.m. EST

It was around September 2020 when a Pulitzer Prize-winning author received an email from a well-known book editor asking for a copy of the writer’s upcoming novel in a Word document format. The author promptly replied with the manuscript, prosecutors said.

But the person making the request wasn’t the esteemed editor. It was a notorious scammer who for years fooled hundreds in the publishing industry into sending over precious unpublished manuscripts, according to an indictment.

The scheme mystified the book community since the manuscripts — which came from high-profile authors like Margaret Atwood and Kiley Reid and actor Ethan Hawke — were never leaked, put on the black market or made the subjects of ransom threats, the New York Times reported in 2020.

Now, federal prosecutors say they may have found the elusive thief: Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old Italian citizen working in London at an international publishing house. He was arrested shortly after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Wednesday and charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to prosecutors.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/06/filippo-bernardini-arrest-stolen-book-manuscripts/

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Source: U.S. Attorney's Office - Southern District of New York

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Italian Citizen Arrested In Online Impersonation Scheme To Fraudulently Obtain Prepublication Manuscripts Of Novels And Other Books

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging FILIPPO BERNARDINI 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. BERNARDINI was arrested this afternoon when he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He will be presented tomorrow before United States Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger in Manhattan federal court. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “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. This real-life storyline now reads as a cautionary tale, with the plot twist of Barnardini facing federal criminal charges for his misdeeds.”

Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll said: “Unpublished manuscripts are works of art to the writers who spend the time and energy creating them. Publishers do all they can to protect those unpublished pieces because of their value. We allege Mr. Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the industry to get authors to send him their unpublished books and texts by posing as agents, publishing houses, and literary scouts. Mr. 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."

According to the Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:[1]

Beginning in at least August 2016, BERNARDINI, who was based in London and worked in the publishing industry, began impersonating agents, editors, and other individuals involved in publishing to fraudulently obtain prepublication manuscripts. These prepublication manuscripts are valuable, and the unauthorized release of a manuscript can dramatically undermine the economics of publishing, and publishing houses generally work to identify and stop the release of pirated, prepublication, manuscripts. Such pirating can also undermine the secondary markets for published work, such as film and television, and can harm an author’s reputation where an early draft of written material is distributed in a working form that is not in a finished state.

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Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/italian-citizen-arrested-online-impersonation-scheme-fraudulently-obtain-prepublication