A 29-year-old of Italian nationality and resident in London, Filippo Bernardini, was arrested last night at the New York airport, accused of having taken on the identity of various operators in the publishing world over the course of several years to obtain fraudulent unpublished manuscripts.
Among his victims the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and the American actor Ethan Hawke. In a statement, the New York District Attorney’s Office informed that the Italian, who worked at Simon & Shuster, is accused of computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Bernardini “used his knowledge from within the industry to get authors to send him unpublished books and texts, pretending to be an agent, a publishing house or a talent scout”, with the aim of “stealing ideas other literary works ”for his benefit, explained Michael Driscoll, deputy director of the local FBI office.