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Frank Abagnale, Jr.
Frank William Abagnale Jr. is an American-French security consultant, author, and convicted felon whose documented crimes consist primarily of cheque fraud and petty theft targeting individuals and small businesses. Beginning in the late 1970s, Abagnale claimed a far more dramatic criminal past involving long-term impersonations of a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia hospital physician,…
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business · American security consultant and convicted fraudster · entrepreneur · security consultant · film actor · businessperson · impostor · also Frank Abagnale, Jr., Frank Abagnale, Frank William Abagnale, Jr., Frank W. Abagnale, Jr.
Born 27 April 1948 · Q116774
37 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 3 entries
Public attention spiked: 10,208 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.9× the usual 2,636, with 0 article edits.
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BroadwayWorld: Frank Abagnale, Jr. in Catch Me If You Can - Broadway
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2025· 1 entry
Yahoo: Catch Frank Abagnale, Jr. if you can this spring at River Valley Players show
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2023· 1 entry
Won FBI Honorary Medals (2023).
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2022· 3 entries
Xavier University in Cincinnati presented Abagnale with a "Heroes in Ethics" award
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Leiva confronted Abagnale at the Connect IT Global conference in Las Vegas with prison and court records in hand
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Investigative journalist Javier Leiva independently verified Logan's findings, confirmed federal court records showing Abagnale's Pan Am check conviction involved less than $1,500, and calculated that Abagnale was free f
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2021· 1 entry
Louisiana State University journalism professor Robert Mann expressed regret that he had not challenged Abagnale's account of this episode when he covered a campus lecture: "Reading those words now, in which Abagnale bra
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2017· 1 entry
Wall Street Journal: Frank Abagnale Jr. on Equifax, Check Fraud, and Cybercrime
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2015· 1 entry
AARP named him its Fraud Watch Ambassador, and in 2018, he began co-hosting the AARP podcast The Perfect Scam
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2012· 1 entry
Rapid City Journal: Frank Abagnale Jr. to speak at USD on Monday
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2011· 2 entries
And played 170 regular performances before closing on September 4, 2011
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Ran for 170 performances, and received four Tony Award nominations, with Norbert Leo Butz winning Best Actor in a Musical
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2010· 1 entry
WGBH: Frank Abagnale Jr.
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2006· 1 entry
KSL-TV journalist Scott Haws challenged Abagnale on this claim, presenting his own published words as evidence
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2002· 1 entry
In which Abagnale was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio
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1988· 1 entry
“What I did in my youth is hundreds of times easier today.”
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1978· 4 entries
That Abagnale and his publicist were directing inquiries to a retired FBI official, Robert Russ Franck, whom they described as a former Atlanta agent familiar with Abagnale's case
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Found them to be largely or entirely unsupported
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The Louisiana State Bar Association reviewed all bar exam records and concluded Abagnale had never taken the exam under his name or any alias; the state attorney general's office examined payroll records for the period A
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Found no evidence to support most of Abagnale's biographical claims
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1976· 1 entry
Founded Abagnale and Associates, which advises corporations, financial institutions, and government agencies on document security and fraud prevention
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1975· 1 entry
Abagnale approached a bank and offered to educate its staff on the techniques used by check forgers, proposing that if they found his information unhelpful they would owe him nothing, and if useful, they would pay him a
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1974· 2 entries
After serving approximately two years of his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Virginia
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Or 1975 to conduct undercover work for the bureau, that he received assignments directly from Director Clarence M
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1971· 1 entry
Was sentenced to ten years for forging checks totaling less than $1,500, with an additional two years for the jail escape
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1970· 4 entries
After cashing ten fake Pan Am payroll checks across five states
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Abagnale cashed a personal check made to resemble a Pan Am paycheck in Durham, North Carolina, drawing FBI attention
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At the University of Arizona, he told students he was a physician and conducted physical examinations on female students under the pretense of a Pan Am recruitment program
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Posed as both a pilot and a physician and conducted physical examinations on female students who believed they were applying to a flight attendant program
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1969· 1 entry
And sentenced to 12 years of supervised probation
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1968· 1 entry
Abagnale moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he posed as a TWA pilot and befriended a local minister who introduced him to Louisiana State University faculty
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1965· 1 entry
Abagnale informed local media that he was a graduate of an American Airlines pilot school in Fort Worth, Texas, but was arrested days later for check theft in Tuckahoe, New York
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1962· 1 entry
Studied at Iona Grammar School (1962).
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1948· 2 entries
To a French Pied-noir mother and an Italian-American father
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Born 1948-04-27.
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