By Alex Gryciuk
Shocking news quickly makes its way through the publishing industry: the notorious “Spine Collector’s” reign finally comes to an end when recently arrested at the JFK airport on January 5, 2021. “The Spine Collector,” also known as a manuscript stealer within the publishing world, continued operations for about five years from around August 2016 to July 2021. In fact, according to the FBI, the manuscript stealer went as far as using “more than 160 fraudulent Internet domains” while engaging “in hundreds of unique efforts to fraudulently obtain” manuscripts, text that has not been published yet. Most notably, going after Pulitzer Prize (an award distinguishing outstanding journalistic work) authors and even “highly anticipated novels by Margaret Atwood, Sally Rooney and actor Ethan Hawke” according to the Guardian.
Stealing manuscripts at first doesn’t seem like it deserves attributing a devious name like “Spine Collector” to manuscript swipers. But, upon closer inspection, stealing manuscripts poses a huge threat to the publishing industry. An essential part of publication includes the auction of manuscripts when literary agents who initially distribute manuscripts, then facilitate the sale of manuscripts to publishing houses. Bids ranging anywhere from thousands to millions of dollars, an auction of manuscripts to the highest bidding publishing houses then assigns unpublished text a monetary value along with publication and distribution rights. Stealing manuscripts from the author and literary agents take away the legitimacy of the auctions; thus, damaging fair compensation and protection for both the author and the literary text as publishing houses no longer have to buy the rights to literary work. Furthermore, the FBI’s statement made upon the arrest of the manuscript stealer explains that “prepublication release of a manuscript can dramatically undermine the economics of publishing,” “undermine an author’s reputation,” and “interfere and manipulate the market on secondary use of publications.” Such harmful effects to the publishing industry, fittingly attribute the “Spine Collector” their devious name.
After years of terror upon the publishing world, the “Spine Collector” also known as Filippo Bernardini was arrested by the FBI and convicted of two felonies: Wire Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft. In fact, as of January 5, 2022, the 29-year-old faces “up to twenty years in prison, three years of supervised release, and $250,000 in fines” for Wire Fraud and a mandatory minimum of “imprisonment for two years” for committing Aggravated Identity Theft. Since conviction though, some sources state that Bernardini plead not guilty and was sentenced to a $300,000 bail. However, no statements have been made federally by the FBI or any other justice department about Bernardini since January 5, 2022.
To read full reports done by the US Government, please use the links provided below:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1460766/download https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/italian-citizen-arrested-online-impersonation-scheme-fraudulently-obtain-prepublication