Anthony Gignac
Image: Miami Herald
A story worthy of being a movie script - which it may still become - has played out in real life. Anthony Gignac, originally of Colombia, has collected numerous perks by posing as a Saudi prince and exhorting credit and gifts from various parties to whom he had promised business deals and other perks, courtesy the Saudi royal family to which he had fraudulently claimed to belong. And he may have been doing just that still if he had done an even marginally decent job of familiarizing himself with the role he had taken on - specifically that of an Arab, a member of the ruling family in charge of the country which is the cradle of Islam and, naturally, a Muslim. But he didn't. And so he kept on eating bacon and other pork products in front of people he sought to dupe and that eventually precipitated doubts in his would-be business partners - but, in reality, his "marks" - which led to his demise. But not before he had scammed said "marks" out of enough cash to finance his luxury lifestyle replete with driving luxury cars, staying at top-notch hotels and resorts and the like.
He would not stop even when in trouble with the law. In the yet-another demonstration of how much power oil money could buy, Gignac managed to force an American Express office to give him a high value credit card even though he could not state the accurate birth date for the prince he was trying to impersonate threatening AmEx with potential ire of his father the King.
The incredible tale of a cunning criminal taking advantage of human naivete and kowtowing to those perceived as powerful is likely coming to an end, at least temporarily, as the protagonist is, once again, looking at a lengthy prison term. But the many lessons of it remain as pertinent as ever.
Sources
He’s called himself a prince for decades — but the royal treatment has ended in Miami
Johanna A Alvarez, Miami Herald, 12 January 2018
Scammer who lived high life as fake Saudi prince gets outed by 🥓
BoingBoing, 9 July 2018