The Heist No One Saw Coming (Except Everyone in Publishing)
When a Manuscript Thief Treats the Publishing World Like His Personal Book Club
Invaluable literary works were pilfered before their dissemination to the readership. That sweet, smug thrill of being in on something exclusive—gone—when the literary world learned there was a thief in its own house.
Between 2016 and 2022, one man wove an intricate web, not to sell what he stole, but to hoard it. Think less Ocean’s Eleven, more Gollum with a library card: “My precious…”
Even after being caught, speculation swirls that the thief is still at it—taunting, trolling, and dropping unreleased manuscripts on piracy sites like a kid flinging paper airplanes off a rooftop. As if to say, “Still can. Try me.”
The thrill? The ego rush of being one of the chosen few to know what no one else knows. Access to a secret literary speakeasy. But should we blame the thief… or the unwitting gatekeepers who kept handing over the keys?
Meet Filippo Bernardini—the man, the myth, the manuscript magpie. According to the Associated Press, literary agent Simon Williams said Bernardini exploited his insider expertise in publishing to devise a phishing scheme targeting major authors and publishers, posing a significant threat to the industry.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “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. Through impersonation and phishing schemes, Bernardini was able to obtain more than a thousand manuscripts fraudulently. I commend the career prosecutors of this Office as well as our law enforcement partners for writing the final chapter to Bernardini’s manuscript theft scheme.”
The Guardian reported that Bernardini misappropriated more than 1,000 manuscripts “to be one of the select few to appreciate them before anyone else.” Despite the scale of the theft, he avoided a custodial sentence.
As per the indictment, BERNARDINI, during the execution of this scheme, registered more than 160 fraudulent Internet domains, designed to mimic legitimate entities and individuals within the publishing sector.
According to reports in Vulture and Book Riot, The New York Times reveals that Bernardini, while not imprisoned, was deported and required to pay approximately $88,000 in restitution, a component of his unique sentencing narrative.
And in a late-chapter twist, AirMail News (December 2024) reported that Bernardini—described as a “compulsive manuscript collector”—is believed to still be operating, possibly ensnaring the late Pope Francis’ book Hope in his ongoing saga. Irrespective of one's convictions, some habits are more difficult to overcome than a deficient initial version.
KL Adams writes about books and literary news for Ink Plots. Before founding the Ink Plots newsletter, KL Adams wrote various novels and is presently studying for a Ph.D. in I/O psychology.