Author Ian McEwan and Swedish publishers of thriller series ‘Millennium’ were among his targets
A former employee of the American publishing house Simon & Schuster has admitted in federal court in New York the theft of a thousand manuscripts of famous writers. This 30-year-old Italian named Filippo Bernardi pulled off this deception thanks to an ingenious identity theft scheme.
Between the summer of 2016 and last January he thus managed to get his hands on drafts of novels and other works by prestigious authors before their publication, writing to them or their representatives from fake e-mail addresses of the heads of the publishing houses or literary agents.
The indictment says Filippo Bernardi created more than 160 Internet domains “He used his knowledge in the publishing industry to create a system to steal valuable works from authors and threaten this publishing world,” the bureau said of the Manhattan Attorney. The Italian pleaded guilty, which will spare him a criminal trial. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
The author Ian McEwan, the Swedish publishers of the thriller series “Millenium” as well as the agent of the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood author of “The Scarlet Handmaiden” were among Filippo Bernardi’s targets.
