Abagnale, Frank

Entrepreneur Frank Abignyla Sr. and his French wife Paulette Abagnale had four children, Frank Jr. was the third child in the family. He inherited many qualities and skills from his father, who was keenly interested in politics and was also involved in working with people of different social status. When Frank turned 16, his parents divorced. By court, he was left in the care of his father. However, according to Frank himself, his father was not very eager for this. The parents' divorce greatly injured the minor Frank, and he, until his father's death (in 1974), tried in vain to rebuild the family.

Father was the first victim of fraud, Frank. With growing interest in the opposite sex, he began to spend more and more on communicating with girls. And he took money from a credit card, which he asked for from his father under the pretext of needing to refuel a car, also donated by his father. He had a kind of collusion with the workers of gas stations: buying fuel and spare parts, he asked him to punch a large amount on the map, and the difference from the real price he shared with the tankers. The final score on the card was $ 3,400, which Abigneyl Sr. learned only after personal contact with the debt collector. As it turned out, Frank was destroying mail receipts.

Soon, Frank finally switched to an adventurous lifestyle and began to commit more serious acts of fraud. His first offense was forging checks at his own expense. At the same time, the amount of the check exceeded the amount of the account. He did this fraud with a lot of banks. The most widely used method was to pick up a false deposit form in a general database. This meant the flow of money from the accounts of real customers of the bank to the fake account of Frank. Thus, he appropriated more than 40 thousand dollars before the banks discovered the source of the leakage of funds. By the time he was on the wanted list, Frank managed to collect money from the accounts and change his identity.

Airline Pilot

Most often, Frank Abagnale used the image of a pilot, who suggested a number of advantages. In the period from 16 to 18 years, “working” on one of the largest American airlines Pan American , he flew over 1,000,000 miles on more than 250 flights to 26 countries around the world at the company's expense. As an airline employee, he could use hotel services for free, which was also at the expense of Pan American. As for the actual control of the aircraft as a pilot, he managed to avoid this responsibility, citing the ban on piloting the aircraft in the presence of alcohol in the blood.

Lecturer Assistant

According to Abignail himself, he taught the discipline of “sociology” at Brigham Young University for one semester thanks to the fact that he had forged a diploma from Columbia University . Working as a teacher, he introduced himself as Frank Adams.

Doctor

For about a year, Abigneil managed to pass himself off as the head pediatrician at a hospital in the state of Georgia , introducing himself as Frank Conners. In Georgia, he was hiding from prosecution by the police, who almost overtook him during one of their flights. When he began filing in the apartments, in the “profession” column, Abagnale recorded himself as a doctor, fearing that in the case of the pilot, the owner of the number could check the record with Pan American data. After that, he became friends with one of his neighbors, who was a real doctor, and got a place in the clinic.

Jurisprudence

Working at Pan American under the pseudonym Robert Black (Robert Black), he told one of the flight attendants that he had a law degree from Harvard University . She introduced him to her friend, a lawyer, who invited Abaginal to pass the exam at the bar. To become a lawyer, Abagnayle had to forge a diploma and prepare for surrender. After 8 weeks of self-study and two unsuccessful attempts, he manages to get a seat at the Attorney General of the State of Louisiana . Here he worked for eight months until he quit. The reason for leaving was the fear that he could be exposed by a real Harvard graduate who also worked with the prosecutor.

In the end, Frank Abagnale was caught in France in 1969. One of the employees of Air France said to the police that he had found the wanted man, because he had seen him before. After being detained, Abignail in 12 countries demanded his extradition for the crimes committed on their territory. A two-day French court sentenced one year’s imprisonment, which was then reduced to six months.

After that, he was extradited to Sweden, where he served another 6 months. Due to the less severe nature of the Swedish legislation, Abagnale could feel more comfortable here. But ahead of him was waiting for another trial of fraud in Italy. Fortunately for him, Sweden and the United States were able to negotiate the expulsion of the prisoner to their homeland. The reason was the cancellation of Abigneil's passport, which gave the Swedish side a legal basis to deport him. In April 1971, in the state of Virginia, Abigneil was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Due to the fact that he agreed to cooperate with the FBI , he was released from prison after 4 years.

Freed from prison, Frank Abagnale tried to find a job as a cook, grocer, projectionist, etc. When he went to work, he did not indicate his previous criminal record, but when employers found out about it through personal data, he was immediately denied a vacancy. As a result, Abagnail decided to submit a non-standard proposal to the bank office. He spoke about his past and concluded the following deal: he shows bank employees ways to cheat and replace documents, and in return he does not take anything if the presentation is useless. If it turns out to be useful, then they pay him $ 50 and give a recommendation to other banks. Since the stunts he showed made a proper impression, Abagnale soon became a legal security consultant.

Later, in Tulsa , Oklahoma, he founds Abagnale & Associates agency, which advises world renowned corporations. According to the agency's website [1] , more than 14,000 companies are now using the Abigneil fraud protection program. In addition, he continues to cooperate with the FBI, lecturing in the academy and specialized departments of the bureau. Thanks to this business, Frank Abagnale is currently the official millionaire.

He lives in the city where his business is based, along with a woman whom he married a year after being released. In the family Abigneyl three sons, one of whom works in the FBI. Agent Joe Shey, a prototype of Karl Henratti from the movie Catch Me If You Can , was a close friend of Abagnale.

Abagnale also created the paper Frank W Signature Watermark Safety Paper, which is designed for the manufacture of checks, passes, tickets and other frequently forged documents. The protection elements are two-color watermarks in the form of the Abigneil label itself, a substance for fixing the toner, multi-colored fibers and the paper's sensitivity to chemical attack, as well as its absence in the public market. Distributor and owner of exclusive rights to manufacture - Standard Register.

• The art of the steal

• Real U Guide To Identity Theft, 2004.
• Stealing Your Life, 2007.

• Consulting company Abagnale & Associates (English)
• The Story of Frank W. Abagnale Jr. - criminal library on tru.tv (eng.)
• Frank Abagnale - New Life (inaccessible link from 04/09/2013 [2157 days] - history , copy ) - Radio interview for ABC in 2000 (eng.)
• Fighting back on ID theft - BBC News Interview 2006 (eng.)
• How Frank Abagnale Would Swindle You - US News & World Report, 2008 (Eng.)
• Frank Abagnale: "Catch me if you can" | Talks at Google , November 2017 (English)