Filippo Bernardini worked in London for the American publisher Simon & Schuster. He used the knowledge he gained in the publishing world to get his hands on the unpublished manuscripts of known and unknown authors from August 2016 to January 2021. Among the hundreds of victims were Dutch writer Hanna Bervoets, bestselling author Margaret Atwood and actor Ethan Hawke.
Authorities have long been in the dark about the man’s motive. Earlier this month, he wrote to the judge that he simply wanted to read the books before they came out. “It was never my intention to leak the manuscripts and I never did,” said Bernardini. “I wanted to keep them to myself and be one of the few people who could have cherished them before they hit the bookstore. Reading them made me feel special at times and I felt like I had a unique connection with the author.”
The man has to pay $ 88,000 (almost € 82,000) to publisher Penguin Random House, because of the legal costs that the company has incurred in connection with the case.
