An Italian man who allegedly participated in a multi-year scheme to steal hundreds of unpublished books was arrested Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
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According to a press release from the Department of Justice, 29-year-old Fillippo Bernardini, who previously worked at London-based publishing house Simon & Schuster , allegedly impersonated agents, publishers and other people involved in the publishing industry to steal manuscripts of unpublished books.
"Filippo Bernardini allegedly impersonated individuals in the publishing industry in order to get authors, including a Pulitzer Prize winner, to send him pre-published manuscripts for his own benefit," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
The assistant director of the FBI's New York office, Michael J. Driscoll, added that "Mr. Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the industry to persuade authors to send him their unpublished books and manuscripts while posing as agents, publishers and literary scouts."
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Throughout the operation that began in August 2016, Bernardini used fake email accounts associated with over 160 domains, impersonating literary talent agencies, publishing houses, and literary scouting agencies.
“The fraudulent domains were similar to the real entities they were impersonating and contained only minor typographical errors that would be difficult for the average user to recognize during a cursory reading,” according to the indictment [PDF].
The fake email addresses allowed him to impersonate real people from the publishing industry and request copies of upcoming manuscripts from hundreds of authors and people involved in the publishing industry.
He also sent phishing emails targeting employees of a New York-based literary scouting company and successfully stole their credentials to gain access to the company's database of synopses and other information about upcoming books.
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The defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted of wire fraud and another two years on the aggravated identity theft charge.
“These manuscripts are valuable, and the unauthorized circulation of a manuscript can dramatically undermine the economics of publication, and publishing houses generally work to identify and stop the circulation of pirated manuscripts,” the Justice Department said today.
According to a report by The Guardian, some of the authors targeted include Margaret Atwood, Sally Rooney , and Ethan Hawke.
