Image: Jaredd Craig
An Italian man allegedly involved in a multi-year scheme to fraudulently obtain hundreds of prepublication manuscripts was arrested on Wednesday at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York.
According to a Department of Justice press release, 29-year-old Fillippo Bernardini (who previously worked at London-based publisher Simon & Schuster) allegedly impersonated agents, editors, and others involved in the publishing industry to steal manuscripts of unpublished books.
"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," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
FBI' New York Office Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll added that "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 Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the industry to get authors to send him their unpublished books and texts by posing as agents, publishing houses, and literary scouts."
Throughout the scheme that started in August 2016, Bernardini used fake email accounts linked to over 160 domains spoofing literary talent agencies, publishing houses, and literary scouting agencies.
"The fraudulent domains [..] were confusingly similar to the real entities they were impersonating , and would include only minor typographical errors that would be difficult for the average user to identify during a cursory reading," according to the unsealed indictment [PDF].
The spoofed email addresses allowed him to impersonate real people from the publishing industry and ask for copies of forthcoming manuscripts from hundreds of authors and people involved in the publishing industry.
