Questions linger after the arrest of an accused literary scam artist

Now that an arrest has been made and charges have been filed in a huge, yearslong publishing phishing scam, we observers have new questions about the case.

Namely, who is Filippo Bernardini, what motivated him to spend so many years impersonating other figures in the publishing world, and what was he hoping to achieve if he succeeded?

The answer to those final two questions is, of course, murky.

But The New Republic has taken a deep dive into Bernardini's life and alleged actions, in order to try to understand what exactly happened.

Bernardini has been charged with wire fraud and identify theft; he has pleaded not guilty but surrendered his passport after his father posted $300,000 bail.

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