Mystery solved? Man arrested in US for thefts of unpublished books
- Italian man allegedly amassed library of manuscripts through phishing scheme
- Publisher Simon & Schuster ‘shocked’ suspect was London-based employee
US authorities say they’ve solved a publishing industry whodunit with the arrest 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literary heists in recent years, allegedly impersonating others in the industry to amass a veritable library of unpublished works.
Filippo Bernardini, an Italian citizen working in publishing in London, was arrested Wednesday after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, said Damian Williams, US attorney for the Southern District of New York in a statement.
Bernardini, 29, faces charges including wire fraud, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, and aggravated identity theft. He was expected to appear in federal court on Thursday.
For years, the publishing industry has been baffled by an international phishing scheme in which someone with apparent inside knowledge impersonated an editor or an agent – by setting up a fake email account – and attempted to trick an author or an editor into sending links to unpublished manuscripts. Works by Margaret Atwood and Ethan Hawke were among those targeted.
The ongoing scheme was all the more mysterious because whoever was seeking the manuscripts was apparently not attempting to sell them or otherwise publicly exploit having them.
“Bernardini allegedly impersonated publishing industry individuals in order to have authors, including a Pulitzer prizewinner, send him prepublication manuscripts for his own benefit,” Williams said in the statement. “This real-life storyline now reads as a cautionary tale, with the plot twist of Bernardini facing federal criminal charges for his misdeeds.”