A media release from the US Attorney’s Office (Southern District of New York) notes the arrest of Filippo Bernardini over an online impersonation scheme over several years to fraudulently obtain prepublication manuscripts of hundreds of books. Bernardini is charged with aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of 2 years in prison, and wire fraud (a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison).
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Filippo Bernardini allegedly impersonated publishing industry individuals in order to have authors, including a Pulitzer prize winner, send him prepublication manuscripts for his own benefit. This real-life storyline now reads as a cautionary tale, with the plot twist of Bernardini facing federal criminal charges for his misdeeds.”
Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll said: “Unpublished manuscripts are works of art to the writers who spend the time and energy creating them. Publishers do all they can to protect those unpublished pieces because of their value. We allege Mr. Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the industry to get authors to send him their unpublished books and texts by posing as agents, publishing houses, and literary scouts. Mr. Bernardini was allegedly trying to steal other people's literary ideas for himself, but in the end he wasn't creative enough to get away with it."
Beginning in at least August 2016, Bernardini, who was based in London and worked in the publishing industry, began impersonating agents, editors, and other individuals involved in publishing to fraudulently obtain prepublication manuscripts. These prepublication manuscripts are valuable, and the unauthorized release of a manuscript can dramatically undermine the economics of publishing, and publishing houses generally work to identify and stop the release of pirated, prepublication, manuscripts. Such pirating can also undermine the secondary markets for published work, such as film and television, and can harm an author’s reputation where an early draft of written material is distributed in a working form that is not in a finished state.
In carrying out this scheme, Bernardini created fake email accounts that were designed to impersonate real people employed in the publishing industry, including literary talent agencies, publishing houses, literary scouts, and others. Bernardini created these accounts by registering more than 160 internet domains that were crafted to be confusingly similar to the real entities that they were impersonating, including only minor typographical errors that would be difficult for the average recipient to identity during a cursory review. Among other things, Bernardini often replaced the lower-case letter m with the lower-case letters r and n, which, when placed together as rn, resemble an m. For example, in or about September 2020, Bernardini utilized a fraudulent email address impersonating a well-known editor and publisher (“Editor-1”) who worked for an imprint of a U.S. publishing house (“Publisher-1”). Impersonating Editor-1, Bernardini emailed a Pulitzer Prize winning author (“Author-1”) and requested a copy of a word version of Author-1’s forthcoming manuscript, which Author-1 sent to Bernardini, believing him to be Editor-1. Over the course of this scheme, Bernardini impersonated hundreds of distinct people and engaged in hundreds of unique efforts to fraudulently obtain electronic copies of manuscripts that he was not entitled to.
In addition, Bernardini engaged in a phishing scheme to surreptitiously gain access to a database maintained by a New York City-based literary scouting company (“Scouting Company-1”). Bernardini created a webpage that impersonated Scouting Company-1’s website. Then, in or about July 2020, Bernardini impersonated a Scouting Company-1 employee and emailed two individuals, directing them to Bernardini’s look-alike webpage and prompting the users to provide their usernames and passwords. Bernardini’s webpage was programmed to automatically forward the input usernames and passwords to an email account controlled by Bernardini.
In Sarac v. Wilstar Management Ltd., 2021 ONSC 7776 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice considered an OPCA and 'pretendian' argument.
The Court states 'in some cases, the claim is not just hopeless on its merits, but is wickedly abusive on its face. Giving notice in those cases can just allow the plaintiff to continue his abuse and utilize ever-more-scarce judicial resources.
[5] This is one such case. For the reasons that follow, this action is dismissed as frivolous, vexatious, and an abuse of process under Rule 2.1.01 (1) and I expressly order that the written hearing process set out in Rule 2.1.01 (3) is not applicable.
[6] Although only Mr. Sarac is named as plaintiff in the title of proceedings, the body of the statement of claim purports to advance claims on behalf of both Mr. Sarac and a person who refers to himself as “Grand Chief Wabiska Mukwa”.
[7] It appears from the statement of claim that Mr. Sarac is suing his former landlord, one of its employees, and an employee of the Sheriff’s office in Toronto, to contest an eviction order made by the Landlord and Tenant Board. The rest of the claim is the familiar claim that has been advanced by Grand Chief Mukwa and rejected by several judges of the court previously.
[8] Grand Chief Mukwa purports to represent two groups for hire who will advance claims in court phrased as assertions of Indigenous rights on behalf of clients like mortgage borrowers, tenants, or others who find themselves in legal troubles. Grand Chief Mukwa makes claims that North America (that he refers to as Turtle Island) is unceded land belonging to his “nations” and thereby denies the authority of the laws of Canada, any province, and the courts over him and his client.
[9] Justice Akbarali described Grand Chief Mukwa’s litigation scheme in Mukwa v. Farm Credit Canada, 2021 ONSC 1632:
[17] At the hearing, Chief Grand Wabiska Mukwa indicated that he, as Chief Justice of his Indigenous Nation, was participating in the hearing together with the plaintiffs whose rights he states are being attacked.
[18] The title of proceedings for the plaintiffs’ claim and amended claim state that the pleadings are issued in conjunction with “ASKIT” and “Kinakwii Indigenous Tribunal.” [19] The evidence before me indicates that Chief Wabiska’s email address, which includes the phrase “askit4equity,” is linked to a website advertising the Anishinabek Solutrean Metis Indigenous Nation (“ASMIN”), which claims to be one of the oldest unsurrendered, untreatied matriarchal Indigenous Nations of Turtle Island. For $225, anyone can become a member of the ASMIN nation on filling out an application.
[20] The Kinakwii National website suggests that Kinakwii Nation was founded by William Allan of the Baldwin family and Jon of the Maskell family under certain notices which are in evidence before me. For $300 annually, anyone can become a member of the Kinakwii Nation on filling out an application.
[21] Neither the ASMIN nor the Kinakwii Nation are recognized as a First Nation on a comprehensive list of all First Nations across Canada that is compiled by Crown-Indigenous Relations, Northern Affairs Canada, and Indigenous Services Canada. [Emphasis added.]
[10] Justice Akbarali went through each of the arguments raised by Grand Chief Mukwa and dismissed them as Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments (“OPCA”). The term OPCA describes a number of abusive litigation tactics discussed in Meads v. Meads, 2012 ABQB 571.
[11] In National Bank of Canada v. Guibord, 2021 ONSC 6549 (CanLII), Mew J also dismissed summarily all of Grand Chief Mukwa’s claims.
[12] As in those prior cases, the statement of claim in this case asserts, among other things, that:
a. Mr. Sarac’s land is unceded or was never surrendered to Canada under the Royal Proclamation of 1763;
b. Mr. Sarac claims the land back for the unconquered Metis People;
c. The defendants’ trespass against the Mr. Sarac has been registered with the ASKIT and Kinakwii Indigenous Tribunal that has been recognized by the Ontario Court of Appeal;
d. Mr. Sarac and Grand Chief Mukwa make a land claim for jurisdiction over Eastern Canada and BC (with certain exceptions for recognized Indigenous lands);
e. Mr. Sarac and Grand Chief Mukwa claim $329 billion for non-payment of rent to the Clan Mothers of North Eastern Region of Turtle Island (Eastern Canada);
f. Mr. Sarac and Grand Chief Mukwa command consultation with the Crown;
g. Mr. Sarac and Grand Chief Mukwa command quo warranto requiring Parliament and Crown Agents to prove that Ottawa, or Toronto, or Cambridge are not on unceded land; that the BNA Act of 1867 received Royal Assent; that the BNA Act was passed by the British Parliament with a quorum; that the BNA Act was not repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act of 1893; that Canada satisfied s. 59 Language contingency of the Canada Act of 1982; and provide any lawful treaty for lands known to the UN as Canada with Non Status Kinakwii Nation and Sovereign ASMIN.
[13] The statement of claim has a section labelled “Facts” that pleads:
... 19. Wabiska Mukwa is an Ansihinaabe man, who is the great, great (etc.) grandson of the French Explorer Jean Nicolet, who was the Interpreter for Champlain in the early 1600's, and who fathered the first Metis child near Lake Nipissing circa 1626-28.
20. Wabiska [Mukwa] is both the Grand Chief of ASMIN, and its Chief of Justice who supervises ASMIN's Indigenous Tribunal ASKIT and Kinakwii's KIT. His family extends through 7 Indigenous lineages, totaling over 6 million People, who have resided all over Eastern Canada, and B.C., for thousands of years, prior to the arrival of Jean Nicolet.
21. Wabiska [Mukwa]'s native heritage traces back thousands of years to Kanata, Bolivia, which is where 'Canada' got its name from.
22. Amir [Sarac] is an Anishinaabe man, who immigrated to Turtle Island, but who has Indigenous roots in Europe, and who was adopted into ASMIN. ..
24. The Crown began to steal the Resources of Canada without any Treaty, and promised to place said profits from the Resources into an Indian Trust, which Indian Trust was merged into a Consolidated Fund in Ottawa via the Indian Act of 1951.
25. Canada Inc. was then registered on the SEC in Washington, D.C. in order to trade in Securities, aka the U.S. Bank Note debt system, which enables the Central Bank in New York to print currency in its computers, without any lawful basis, in order to control trade on Turtle Island by offering Landlords like WILSTAR MANAGEMENT both the means, and the mortgage to buy up Indigenous Land without Treaty or purchase from the Clan Mothers.
26. Both The Indian Act and The BNA Act of 1867 did not receive 3 Readings and do not have Royal Assent. The BNA Act of 1867 was repealed by the UK Statute Law Revision Act of 1893, and became a Nullity.
27 .Both The BNA Act of 1867 and The Canada Act of 1982 were passed only in the UK Parliament, and, according to British Imperial Policy (a.k.a. Aboriginal Common Law), have no Jurisdiction over Peoples who are Un-Conquered, like the Indigenous People living on Turtle Island (North and South American and The Caribbean).
28. Amir [Sarac] was dragged into a foreign Tribunal, being The Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board, in violation of the British Imperial Policy (as cited by the SCC in R v Desautel), where Amir [Sarac] gave a "consent" that was not informed, and that was given without prior Consultation with the Crown. Amir [Sarac]'s Plea regarding his Standing on his own Land as an Indigenous Tenant, under Indigenous Laws, Customs and Traditions were ignored, even though Canada's Parliament had ratified UNDRIP.
[14] Recall that Mr. Sarac claims to have been a residential tenant. He has no claim to title to the land on which his rental unit was located. In addition, ASMIN and Kinakwii are not First Nations. They are groups that can be joined online by anyone for a few hundred dollars. Mr. Sarac pleads that his indigeneity traces from European roots – not from Canada’s Indigenous Peoples – and he was “adopted into ASMIN” i.e. he paid his $225 online fee.
[15] None of Mr. Sarac, Grand Chief Mukwa, or his two groups speak for the Metis People.
[16] If there is an ASKIT and Kinakwii Indigenous Tribunal, it is certainly not a domestic tribunal exercising a jurisdiction on behalf of a First Nation that has been recognized by the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
[17] In her decision discussed above. Akbarali J. made it clear that a “challenge to Canadian sovereignty, validly enacted legislation, constitutional documents, and land surrenders” is not justiciable.
[18] As discussed by Mew J., there is a time and a place for Indigenous land claims. This is a residential landlord and tenant case in which Canada is not even a party. The Crown’s constitutional obligations to consult with Indigenous People have nothing to do with this matter, the plaintiffs, or their groups.
[19] In Farm Credit Canada v. 1047535 Ontario Limited et al., 2021 ONSC 2541 (CanLII), Sweeny J. (as he then was) dismissed many of the same claims under Rule 2.1 as follows:
[28] The pleading in this case is not a close call. It is plainly vexatious. Resorting to the attenuated process of rule 2.1 is appropriate.
[29] The words used in the pleading, the form of the pleading including appendices, are all consistent with the illegitimate litigation tactics commonly referred to as “organized pseudo-legal commercial arguments”, as described in Meads v. Meads, 2012 ABQB 571. …
[31] This pleading is a game designed to frustrate the system and inflict unrecoverable expense and needless stress on the plaintiff, Farm Credit Corporation. The nature of the counterclaim seeks to frustrate the system and inflict unrecoverable expense and needless stress on the defendants to the counterclaim and the individuals who are purported to be named in the amended statement of defence and counterclaim.
[20] The civil justice system must protect itself from blatant abuses of its process to preserve its resources for the litigants who truly need them. Grand Chief Mukwa has had several opportunities to explain how his claims and processes are anything other than legal gibberish designed to frustrate our already over-burdened civil justice system.
[21] No private defendant has to be called into this court to prove that Canada and Ontario are sovereign and do not derive their plenary constitutional jurisdictions from the US Securities and Exchange Act. Neither does a tenant get to hold up his eviction by suing his landlord for $329 billion dollars allegedly owing by Canada to its Indigenous Peoples.
[22] If the plaintiff actually launched a proper and timely appeal from the Landlord and Tenant Board’s ruling, he might find a statutory stay of the eviction more to his liking. Instead, whether by design or through clever marketing, the plaintiff has retained Grand Chief Mukwa as his “guru” (as described by Rooke ACJA in Meads) to bring these same claims that have been repeatedly dismissed summarily by this court.
[23] All that is happening is that, for money, Grand Chief Mukwa and his groups are trying to help the plaintiff fend off a residential eviction by tying up the courts in his OPCA claims.
[24] Grand Chief Mukwa’s claims have been held to be invalid legal non-sequitors numerous times by numerous judges. He knows they are not real claims that have any legal validity. There is nothing left to hear from him. In fact, devoting time to dealing seriously with OPCA claims that are knowingly frivolous and vexatious just plays into the hands of the gurus who gain status and profit from the court engaging in their games as if they assert justiciable legal questions.
[25] This country recognizes that real injustices have been inflicted upon its Indigenous communities including the Metis People. Litigants who try to avoid their financial responsibilities by wrapping themselves in the garb of Indigenous Peoples’ real victimhood and suffering to tie up the courts with illegitimate and abusive claims deserve not another moment of court time or attention.
