For years, tons of of high-profile manuscripts — together with early variations of books by Margaret Atwood and Sally Rooney — had been stolen in a phishing scheme. Probably the most puzzling a part of the case was that nothing appeared to come back from these thefts; uthe manuscripts weren’t leaked or bought, so far as anybody might inform. So why go to the difficulty of impersonating a writer as a way to get these manuscripts?
Final 12 months, we lastly discovered the individual behind the theft of roughly 1,000 unpublished books: Filippo Bernardini. However that didn’t tackle the larger questions in regards to the case.
Bernardini has now gone to court docket and pleaded responsible to wire fraud. His lawyer, Jennifer Brown, argued for a lightweight sentence, saying he grew up lonely, typically bullied for being homosexual, and located refuge in books.
Bernardini stated he “needed to maintain them intently to my chest and be one of many fewest to cherish them earlier than anybody else, earlier than they ended up in bookshops” and that studying them at this stage felt like having a “particular and distinctive reference to the creator, nearly like I used to be the editor of that guide.”
The argument labored, in that Filippo Bernardini won’t be going to jail. He might be deported to the UK or Italy, nonetheless, and should pay $88,000 to Penguin Random Home to cowl their authorized charges.
