Con artist pleads guilty in phishing plot that duped authors

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A yearslong saga that ensnared the publishing world culminated in a New York courtroom Friday when a con artist pleaded guilty to a plot that defrauded scores of authors by duping them into handing over hundreds of unpublished manuscripts. “Filippo Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the publishing industry to create a scheme that stole precious works from authors and menaced the publishing industry," Williams said in a statement. Bernardini created fake email accounts by registering more than 160 internet domains that, prosecutors said, “were confusingly similar to the real entities that they were impersonating, including only minor typographical errors that would be difficult for the average recipient to identify during a cursory review.” He impersonated hundreds of people over the course of the scheme, obtaining more than a thousand manuscripts through his deceit.