Enrico & Piero Penelli: (19 C) Italian

Egyptian artifact forgers.

Enrico, was a restorer from the Louvre in Paris.

One day in 1893, he casually informed experts at the British Museum, that an Egyptian sarcophagus held in their collection had been made by him and his brother and that they had formerly buried it in Certeveri!

They very successfully had flooded the Italian market with clay masterpieces.

Konrad Kujau: (1938-2000) German

Previously included as a master forger but he was also the German author of the Hitler Diaries. Again it is very well recorded and the story told..

Many of the manufactured relics he sold however included military helmets, uniforms, flags, medals, forged letters and documents allegedly by former SS officials. Yet, of all the items he sold, his most popular were paintings purportedly created by Hitler.

Konrad Kujau

John Laflin  alias, John Laffite  ( 20 C.)  American

Historical document forger.

Until he died in 1970, Laffite who claimed descendency from the famous corsair, Jean Lafitte  the Prince of Pirates of the Gulf and Caribbean fame, caused literary havoc with his production of  hitherto unknown historical documents including a rare account of the battle of the Alamo supposedly by Lt. Col. Jose Enrique de la Pena who served in Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's army, entitled Personal Narrative with Santa Anna in Texas.

He is also accused of being a prolific Lincoln forger.

It is unclear whether Laflin was charged or served any prison time for his alleged fakes.

Thomas McAnea:  (1950) Scot.  AKA  “Hologram Tam”

Bank note forger

A Glaswegian master bank note forger. Reputedly responsible for forging some £700,000 worth of bank notes at Print Link Ltd. and subsequently sentenced in 2007 for six and a half years in prison.

McAnea had previously walked free from a 10-year sentence for similar doings..

Thomas McAnea

Lawrence Cusack: (1951) American

Historical document, letters and autograph forger.

Was convicted in 1999 for forging papers supposedly by J F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, letters which he claimed were proof certain of a steamy relationship between them. Called the most audacious and most profitable hoax since the Hitler diaries, the case was known as the Cusack Papers
He defence was that he had found more than 700 pages of documents written by JFK, his brother Robert Kennedy and Monroe, amongst the files of his father, Lawrence Cusack Sr, who died in 1985.

Mark William Hofmann (B 1954) American  'The Utah Bomber.'

Historical Document Forger

Mark Hofmann has built for himself the reputation of being a notorious dealer in forged historical documents but is widely regarded as one of the most successful document, coin and banknote forgers in US history.

His downfall involved a criminal deception & the Mormon church in a Hofmann scam which convinced them that he had discovered vital documents relating to the churches founding history. Counting on their ultimate desire to suppress anything negative in its possible content, he set about the scam.

Sounding dramatically as if they were penned for Jason Bourne by Robert Ludlum, these forged documentswere titled amongst others: the Salamander Letter, the Anthon Transcript, the Far West Letter the Stowell Letter and Blessing of Joseph Smith III.

On October 15, 1985, two motion activated booby-trapped shrapnel bombs, both hidden in parcels addresses to church officials, exploded in Salt Lake City, Utah, killing two people. Steven F. Christensen, a Mormon bishop and Kathleen Sheets whose husband was also a bishop in the Mormon Church. Both, it is believed, were involved with negotiations between the church and Hofmann for the secret purchase of the 'recently discovered' documents.

Eventually, Hofmann, after a confession to police authorities, was charged with theft and deception relating to hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mormon Church leaders through the sale of forged historical documents and with two counts of first-degree murder.

He is currently serving a sentence of 5 years to life in Utah state prison.

Mark William

Hofmann

Pedro Castorena Ibarra: (C 1965) Mexican

Identity Document Forger

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Pedro Castorena who was on the US, 10 most-wanted fugitives list, is accused of heading the family-run enterprise that has dominated the document-forging industry in the United States since the late 1980s. Supplying bogus identity papers to millions of illegal immigrants over the last two decades. It is alleged that the Fake Documents Cartel operated in 33 states.

Pedro Castorena Ibarra

Brigido Lara: (20 C)  South American

Artefact forger

A Mexican forger of pre-Columbian antiquities who created many items in the style of the Mayans, Aztecs.

Lara sold his work as genuine Mexican antiquities with  buyers not asking too  many questions since they beleived they were buying contraband!

Lara went to jail in 1974 for a year.

Brigido Lara

"The Lavender Hill Mob" & 'Operation Mermaid'

Currency forgers

The year was 1999 and in a huge undercover police operation labelled 'Operation Mermaid', British police set out to stop the production of forged currency when they swooped on one of Britain's largest and most successful counterfeiting rings nicknamed the Lavender Hill Mob.

Bank of England officials claimed that the gang had accounted for over half of all the production of all forged British bank notes in circulation between 1993 and 1998, staggeringly valued at over £50 million pounds.

Those arrested were: Ringleaders; 

Kenneth Mainstone,  (B. 1938-  British) a retired printer, codename Biggles, got 12 years for his part in the operation. AND

Stephen Jory, (1949 - 2006) The loveable rogue, who was historically known as Britain's most prolific counterfeiter, received 8 years imprisonment.

Jory had gained notoriety during the 70s as the pioneer of the fake perfume industry, producing some five million bottles of fake smellies, including Chanel No5, manufactured in secret factories at locations in London and Acapulco. Newspapers of the time described the scam as a "£300m international perfume fraud".
Jory was to go on to become theauthor of the books entitled: Super Grass and his autobiography LOADSA MONEY later retitled Funny Money, but he died before finishing his third book detailing his expolits in the perfume industry called the Perfume Pirate.

Throughout his life of crime, Jory known by his adversaries as an 'old school rogue' who held a grudging respect for his abilities.

Othe gang members:

Martin Watmough, 46, also a retired printer, pleaded guilty to possession of counterfeit currency and eceived a three year prison sentence

Anthony Wilkie, 60, was convicted of conspiracy to counterfeit coins and stamps but vehemently claimed that police had planted the counterfeiting equipment found at his home!

Bernard Farrier    67, admitted conspiracy to counterfeit notes and later died in prison.

Edward Burns, allegedly the supplier of the paper, was acquitted.

The forgers were exposed when one of their own, a man nicknamed Buzz attracted the attention of police. Police officers confiscated what was believed to be the only illegal press used to print counterfeit currency in Britain, a sophisticated four-colour printing press found in Mainstones' home.

It is beleived that much of the bogus cash still remains in circulation!

Kenneth Mainstone

Stephen Jory

No image available

Anthony Wilkie

Anatasios Arnaouti  British (B. 1967)

Bank note forger.

Arnaouti was jailed in 2005 for eight years for his part in a counterfeit operation capable of producing tens of thousands of bank notes each day. He was indited for; conspiracy to make counterfeit currency, conspiracy to handle stolen goods and conspiracy to pass counterfeit currency. 

In 'Operation Gait', the  US Secret service working alongside the National Crime Squad in England and  uniquely assisted by a BBC TV undercover documentary team, filmed the counterfeit printing presses in operation, putting a halt to a massive forgery operation which was considered to have been of such a magnitude that it may have compromised the whole US and UK economies.

The gangs ringleader, Anatasios Arnaouti, a criminal from Manchester, was head of an illicit forgery ring described by the police as sophisticated and audacious.

 Others gang members charged at the time were:

David Harper, Philip Raynor, Robert 'Dwayne' Whittaker and Alison Jane Wyatt.

Anatasios Arnaouti

'Operation Dealer no Deal' 2008

Print forgers and Counterfeiters.

A European gang, based in Spain and Italy, allegedly shipped counterfeit prints by Miró, Picasso, Dalí, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein and Tàpies to art dealers in Florida and Chicago.

A major international fraud investigation which began over one and a half years ago labelled  'Operation Dealer no Deal' involved the FBI Art Crime Team,  FBI field offices, the US Postal Inspection Service and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and well as authorities abroad..

A current European indictment alleges that five defendants along with others, participated in a major art fraud scheme between July 1999 and October 2007 costing victims around the world more than $5 million dollars.

The wrldwide investigation alleging the distribution of counterfeit artwork by the defendents lead to two separate indictments being filed in connectiwith the counterfeit rings.

Oswaldo Aulestia-Bach, (Spanish)

Elio Bonfiglioli (Italian) are alleged to have distributed counterfeit artwork. 

Patrizia Soliani an Italian is charged  with four counts of fraud.

Jerome Bengis, is charged with 2 counts of fraud and

Michael Zabrin American with six.

James Kennedy (American)  is implicated in a second indictment, charged  with five counts of fraud. It also alleged by authorities that he forged the signatures of Picasso, Chagall,  Miró and Roy Lichtenstein netting over $1.3m from the sale of fake art between 2005 and 2007.

Leon Amiel, Jr., AKA Leon Glass. Is charged with six counts of fraud.

We must be reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not any evidence of guilt. All the defendants here are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the United States and others, has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case continues.

Fake Picasso print Françoise Gilot