Fbi arrests man unpublished manuscripts11/22/2023 In 'African Origin' show at Met, new points of light across cultures This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Attorney Damian Williams said: This real-life storyline now reads as a cautionary tale, with the plot twist of Bernardini facing federal criminal charges for his misdeeds. In a news release announcing the arrest, U.S. ![]() What hes been stealing, said Kelly Farber, a literary scout, is basically a huge amount of information that any publisher anywhere would be able to use to their advantage. Publishers compete and bid to publish work abroad, for example, and knowing whats coming, who is buying what and how much theyre paying could give companies an edge. ![]() Indeed, the indictment details how Bernardini went about the scheme but not why.Įarly knowledge in a rights department could be an advantage for an employee trying to prove his worth. When manuscripts were successfully stolen, none of them seemed to show up on the black market or the dark web. Works by high-profile writers and celebrities like Margaret Atwood and Ethan Hawke have been targeted, but so have story collections and works by first-time authors. The phishing attacks have been so voluminous and far-reaching, hitting publishing professionals in the United States, Sweden and Taiwan, among other countries, that some have said it could not possibly be the work of just one person.įor years, the scheme has baffled people in the book world. The thief would sometimes use common shorthand, like ms for manuscript, and understood how a book got from one point to the next on its way to publication. Many in publishing who received the phishing emails noted that whoever wrote them was clearly familiar with the industry. He set up impostor login pages that prompted his victims to enter their usernames and passwords, which gave him broad access to the scouting companys database.īernardini left few digital crumbs online, omitting his last name on his social media accounts, like Twitter and LinkedIn, on which he described an obsession for the written word and languages. According to his LinkedIn profile, he obtained his bachelors in Chinese language from Università Cattolica in Milan and later served as the Italian translator for Chinese comic book author Rao Pingrus memoir, Our Story. He also obtained a masters degree in publishing from University College London and described his passion as ensuring books can be read and enjoyed all over the world and in multiple languages. He would employ slightly tweaked domain names like instead of, putting an rn in place of an m. The indictment said he had registered more than 160 fraudulent internet domains that impersonated publishing professionals and companies.īernardini also targeted a New York City-based literary scouting company. Simon & Schuster was not accused of wrongdoing in the indictment.Īccording to the indictment, to get his hands on the manuscripts, Bernardini would send out emails impersonating real people working in the publishing industry a specific editor, for example by using fake email addresses. 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. A spokesperson for the Southern District said Bernardini did not yet have a lawyer.Ī Simon & Schuster spokesman, in a statement, said the publisher was shocked and horrified by the allegations Bernardini faces and that he has been suspended until there is further information on the case. ![]() 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 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. ![]() 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.
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