They were puzzling thefts, lacking a clear motive or payoff, and they happened in the genteel world of publishing, where someone was stealing unpublished book manuscripts.
Over email, a fraudster impersonated publishing professionals and targeted authors, editors, agents and literary scouts who might have drafts of novels and other books.
The mystery may be solved. Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old publishing professional, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday for allegedly posing as a publisher and trying to steal hundreds of manuscripts over the course of five or more years.
Mr. Bernardini was charged with wire fraud and identity theft in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. It was not clear if he had a lawyer.
Mr. Bernardini worked as a rights coordination for a major international publisher in London. He said on his bio that he worked for Simon & Schuster.
Simon & Schuster did not reply to the request. The indictment did not accuse it of wrongdoing.
The indictment states that Mr. Bernardini would use fake email addresses to get his hands on the manuscripts. He would change the name of the website to penguinrandomhouse.com, but keep the name penguinrandornhouse.com. He registered more than 160 fake internet domains that impersonated publishing professionals.
Mr. Bernardini targeted a New York City-based literary scouting company that was trying to gain access to its database, which cataloged upcoming projects, film rights and how much proposals had sold for. Mr. Bernardini was able to gain access to the scouting company's database because he set up fake login pages.
The person who wrote the emails was familiar with the industry. The thief would use shorthand like "ms" for manuscript and understand how a book got from one point to the next on its way to publication.
People in the publishing world have been confused by the scheme for a long time. The works of high-profile writers and celebrities have been targeted, but so have story collections and works by first-time authors. When manuscripts were stolen, they didn't show up on the black market or the dark web. Ransom demands never materialized.
An employee trying to prove his worth in a rights department might have an advantage. Knowing who is buying what and how much they are paying could give companies an edge.
Kelly Farber, a literary scout, said that the information he has been stealing is a huge amount of information that any publisher anywhere would be able to use.
