In August, author Catherine Lacey received a disturbing email threateningly claiming to have stolen her unfinished manuscript for the novel "Gemma." The message quoted the text from the beginning of her work and ended with a string of middle finger emojis. The sender identified themselves as "the Spine Collector" and taunted Lacey to involve law enforcement.

This incident followed an earlier episode in which Lacey mistakenly sent her manuscript to a fraudulent Hotmail address posing as her literary agent, Jin Auh. Upon learning this, Auh noted the similarity to a known manuscript theft case from previous years, suggesting the reemergence of the perpetrator.

The suspect in question is Filippo Bernardini, a former rights coordinator at Simon & Schuster U.K. who was arrested in 2022 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bernardini faced charges including wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, accused of using approximately 160 fraudulent internet domains to impersonate hundreds of publishing industry professionals. Through these tactics, he reportedly illicitly obtained over 1,000 unpublished manuscripts over a period of more than five years.

Bernardini pleaded guilty to wire fraud in January 2023. Although he avoided incarceration, he was deported from the United States and ordered to pay $88,000 in restitution to Penguin Random House. At his sentencing, the presiding judge described the act as an inflated crime born from what initially appeared to be a prank. Bernardini attributed his behavior to compulsive tendencies, personal curiosity, and professional animosity.

The latest episodes involving Lacey raise concerns that Bernardini, or someone employing similar methods, may be resuming these deceptive practices targeting authors and publishers. The publishing industry continues to grapple with challenges around protecting unpublished works from fraudulent schemes that exploit trust and access within professional networks.