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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: forgery

forgery stories: 18 news summaries

Men Try to Rob Bank With Fake Search Warrant

Manager outsmarts criminals armed only with handcuffs

Nov 17, 09 1:33 PM CST
(Newser) - Five Nevada men are set to appear in federal court today after allegedly attempting to rob a bank armed only with handcuffs and a fake search warrant. These criminal masterminds claimed that the search warrant entitled them to take all the money out of the bank’s vault, according to... More »

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crime • bank robbery • forgery • stupidity • search warrant

The Strange Story of Jack Kerouac's Estate

A mama's boy, a will that's a forgery, and '100 Greek relatives'

Oct 29, 09 1:30 PM CDT
(Newser) - When Jack Kerouac died, wallowing in alcohol and obscurity, the bank estimated his estate’s value at $1. He left everything to his mother, and when she died, she left it to Kerouac’s third wife, Stella Sampas—or so everyone believed. Recently a Florida court ruled Gabrielle Kerouac's will... More »

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will • Jack Kerouac • inheritance • forgery • beat

Sarkozy Oversteps in Rancorous Trial With Foe

Howls as French president calls Villepin 'guilty' in TV interview

Sep 25, 09 5:34 AM CDT
(Newser) - Nicolas Sarkozy may have crossed the line in the continuing trial of his political foe Dominique de Villepin, the former French prime minister accused of waging a smear campaign against him in 2004. During a TV interview in New York, Sarkozy called Villepin and his co-defendants "the guilty parties"... More »

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Nicolas Sarkozy • France • trial • Dominique de Villepin • Clearstream affair • forgery

ANALYSIS

 'Jesus Burial Box' 
 Trial Gets Thorny 

Judge skeptical after witnesses seemingly contradict own testimony

Sep 5, 09 4:18 PM CDT
(Newser) - The public is already frowning on a Tel Aviv man accused of forging the burial box of Jesus' brother James, but the judge in the case has hinted that the case is weak, Matthew Kalman writes in Time. Two scientists, witnesses for the prosecution, have testified that geological conditions could... More »

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Israel • research • scientists • Tel Aviv • artifacts • Jesus Christ • forgery

Missing Picasso Found in Iraq?! Probably Not.

The Naked Woman likely not missing, nor
a Picasso, say experts

Aug 27, 09 3:45 PM CDT
(Newser) - Iraqi security forces have secured a purported Pablo Picasso painting believed stolen from a Kuwaiti museum during the 1990 invasion, the Times of London reports. Only it’s probably not a Picasso. “It bears absolutely no relation to any Picasso that I can think of,” says one... More »

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Iraq • Saddam Hussein • art museum • war • Kuwait • The Louvre • Pablo Picasso • art heist • forgery • invasion

(Newser) - Meryl Gordon has a plum seat at the so-called Brooke Astor trial, in which her son, Anthony Marshall, stands accused of thievery. Complete with the crème de la crème of New York society recounting terrible things and scathing Astorisms, Gordon writes in Vanity Fair, it’s a “... More »

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will • Brooke Astor • Anthony Marshall • grand larceny • forgery • criminal trial • Annette de la Renta • New York Supreme Court • Meryl Gordon • codicil

 UK Art Honcho: 
 We Need More Fakes 

Could be due to planned imitation exhibition, of course

Jul 21, 09 2:53 PM CDT
(Newser) - The head of London’s National Gallery wishes “we had more fakes,” he tells Reuters. “It’s worth having some in a collection. Not having them on display for what they pretend to be, but for what they are,” Nicholas Penny explains ahead of a 2010... More »

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art museum • art • forgery • National Gallery • Jay-ZTV • Nicholas Penny

NY Man Posed as Dead Mom
in Alleged Fraud Scheme

He denies being modern Norman Bates

Jun 17, 09 5:14 PM CDT
(Newser) - Shades of Norman Bates in Psycho: A Brooklyn man accused of dressing up as his dead mom to collect Social Security checks and rent subsidies worth $115,000 has been indicted on 47 counts of grand larceny, forgery, and conspiracy, the New York Daily News reports. Thomas Prusik-Parkin, 49, and... More »

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fraud • New York • Brooklyn • grand larceny • forgery • Thomas Prusik-Parkin

Scammer: I Forged Author Signatures

'Autographed' first editions brought big bucks in eBay fraud

May 20, 09 3:10 PM CDT
(Newser) - A man who made more than $300,000 by selling "autographed" first editions of books that actually contained forged signatures pleaded guilty to fraud in a Philadelphia court today. Forrest Smith's offerings on eBay included books by Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Anne Rice, Tom Wolfe, and Tom Clancy,... More »

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Internet • fraud • crime • eBay • literature • Philadelphia • Norman Mailer • Anne Rice • forgery • Tom Wolfe • Tom Clancy • Forrest Smith III • Truman Capote

Boy George Replaces Queen on Fake Bills

British shop workers fooled by his-head-for-hers forgery

Mar 26, 09 7:33 AM CDT
(Newser) - Boy George made a convincing stand-in for the Queen on a counterfeit note found in Britain this week, the Daily Telegraph reports. The £20 note was passed at a stationary shop and the staff didn't realize it was a fake until a bank worker checked the anti-forgery watermark and... More »

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currency • counterfeit • Britain • watermark • Boy George • forgery • Howard Stern Grid

Feds: Today's Counterfeiters Are Poor Copies

Ink-jet amateurs replace skilled crooks who once fooled experts

Dec 27, 08 8:29 AM CST
(Newser) - Secret Service agents are waxing nostalgic for counterfeiters of old, the Kansas City Star reports. The printers who once produced 20s, 50s, and 100s good enough to fool experts have been replaced by home office crooks who reproduce small bills on ink-jet printers. "It’s a lost art,"... More »

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currency • Secret Service • counterfeit • money • US currency • counterfeiters • forgery

Web Unravels Around Lawyer Held in Fraud

Allegedly duped victims of millions in tale of deception, bravado

Dec 9, 08 12:11 PM CST
(Newser) - A bizarre case is unfolding around Marc Dreier, the Yale- and Harvard-educated Manhattan attorney arrested Sunday for his alleged involvement in a fraudulent scheme to sell hundreds of millions in forged, phony debt. Investigators contend his scams were nothing more than brazen confidence games in which he leveraged his position,... More »

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fraud • Harvard Law School • white collar crime • forgery • hedge funds

Iran Impeaches Minister for Fake Oxford Degree

Key Ahmadinejad ally misspelled words on 'honorary doctorate'

Nov 4, 08 3:08 PM CST
(Newser) - It turns out lying on your resume is frowned upon in Tehran, too. Iran’s parliament gave Interior Minister Ali Kordan the boot today, for posing as an honorary Oxford law graduate, the Daily Telegraph reports. Kordan’s bogus diploma is riddled with typos and misspellings, declaring Kordan “intitled”... More »

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Iran • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Oxford • Iranian politics • forgery • Ali Kordan

 Bush Forged Evidence
 for War: Book

Bribed Saddam official $5M to write letter

Aug 5, 08 8:44 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Bush administration forged a letter linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks, author Ron Suskind alleges in his new book. In December 2003, a letter surfaced from Saddam’s intelligence chief, describing a meeting between Saddam and one 9/11 hijacker. The letter was actually drafted by the White House,... More »

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Iraq • Bush administration • weapons of mass destruction • Iraq war • forgery

  How a
  Forger Fooled
  Vermeer-Lovers 

20th-century painter made millions and tricked a powerful Nazi

Jul 13, 08 12:23 PM CDT
(Newser) - Johannes Vermeer created only a few dozen paintings in his lifetime, while other major 17th-century artists cranked out 10 times that. That helped a mediocre Dutch painter  create convincing forgeries in the 20th century, NPR reports in a look at a new book on one of art's great hoaxes and... More »

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crime • art • painting • artist • hoax • forgery • Jan Vermeer

Man Admits to Selling Stolen Body Parts

New Jersey dentist ran ring that harvested bones and tissue

Mar 18, 08 9:57 PM CDT
(Newser) - A New Jersey dentist who ran a business plundering body parts from corpses in funeral homes pleaded guilty in Brooklyn today, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. Michael Mastromarino, 44, admitted to removing bones and tissue from two dozen corpses, which were sold to tissue processors for use in transplants and other... More »

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New Jersey • corruption • transplant • medical records • Michael Mastromarino • Biomedical Tissue Services • funeral home • blood sample • grand larceny • forgery • body stealing

Cops Nab 9 for Selling Forged Bowl Tickets

Police uncover 50 fake passes, dope, and
more than $6K in cash

Feb 3, 08 7:08 PM CST
(Newser) - Cops in Scottsdale, Ariz. nabbed nine people today for selling forged Super Bowl tickets, the AP reports. Police cottoned onto the scam when a Massachusetts couple reported doling out $2,500 for the fake passes. Cops tracked suspects to a Motel 6, where they found dozens of forged tickets, marijuana,... More »

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Arizona • police • Super Bowl • scam • ticket • arrest • forgeries • Scottsdale • forgery

Gauguin Sculpture a Fake

'The Faun' outed as impostor after decade in Chicago art museum

Dec 12, 07 12:03 PM CST
(Newser) - After a decade on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, a ceramic figure allegedly sculpted by Paul Gauguin was revealed yesterday to be a fake. The museum discovered 'The Faun,' a half-man, half-goat figure, to be the work not of the 19th century French artist, but of a... More »

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art museum • art market • Chicago • art • Britain • art auction • Paul Gauguin • Art Institute of Chicago • forgeries • Shaun Greenhalgh • Olive Greenhalgh • George Greenhalgh • forgery

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