Filippo Bernardini, the publisher who stole the highly anticipated books before they were published

Former employee of a large American publishing house in London, Filippo Bernardini has admitted to stealing more than a thousand manuscripts before their publication by contacting authors and publishers using more than 160 fake email addresses. He risks twenty years in prison.

This mysterious story of fraud and identity theft looks like that of Catch me if you can… Nevertheless, there is nothing imaginary about this.

Former employee in a large publishing house

A 30-year-old Italian confessed to having it usurped the identities of several personalities from the publishing world to steal more than a thousand manuscripts of famous authorsaccording to the information of International mail.

Old 30 yearsFilippo Bernardini is a former employee of the prestigious American publishing house Simon & Schusterwhich specifically publishes the work of Stephen King. Bernardini worked in London as foreign rights officer. On January 7, 2022 it had been charged with identity theft and charged with wire fraud. This Friday, January 6, 2023, the counterfeiter has admitted to American justice that he stole more than a thousand manuscripts from popular authors between 2016 and 2022.

Filippo Bernardini, the publisher who stole the highly anticipated books before they were published — © jaredd craig / Unsplash

Contacting the authors using fake email addresses

What method did Filippo Bernardini use to steal the precious works?

The latter admitted in court that he created several fake email addresses, posing as publishers or literary agents known to its recipients. To be discreet, he sometimes changed just one letter of the original e-mail address of the people he was pretending to be. In total, he would have created more than 160 fake addresses. Thanks to them, he wrote to prestigious authors asking them send him their manuscripts before publication.

julia buchner bookstore — © Julia Bruchner / Pexels

Second the New York TimesCanadian writer Margaret Atwood, to which we owe one of the greatest planetary successes, the dystopian novel The Scarlet Maiden he would be approached by the forger, just like Sally Rooney or Ian McEwanwithout falling into its trap.

Currently, Filippo Bernardini’s motivations remain a mystery since the stolen manuscripts did not, aware of the authoritiesnever offered for sale by the latter. The man was sentenced to pay a fine $88,000 to justice and risk twenty years in prison. He will know his sentence on April 5th.