An Italian man has pleaded guilty in New York to impersonating editors and agents in order to steal more than 1,000 unpublished book manuscripts belonging to authors like Margaret Atwood and the actor Ethan Hawke.

Filippo Bernardini, 30, who was employed by publisher Simon & Schuster while living in London, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in US federal court on Friday (local time).

Prosecutors said that from August 2016 until his January 2022 arrest, Bernardini created fake email addresses and registered more than 160 bogus domain names to impersonate publishing professionals, in an effort to claim authors' works as his own.

They said the former Simon & Schuster rights coordinator would often replace a lower-case "m" with an "rn," so that "simonandschuster" might appear as "sirnonandschuster," for example.

The stolen manuscripts included a work by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, prosecutors said.

"Filippo Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the publishing industry to create a scheme that stole precious works from authors and menaced the publishing industry," US attorney Damian Williams said.

His lawyer Hannah McCrea said he could face more than one year in prison under recommended sentencing guidelines when he is sentenced on April 5.

Bernardini had pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and an aggravated identity theft charge, following his arrest upon arriving at John F Kennedy International Airport.

Simon & Schuster was not accused of wrongdoing. 

"Protection of authors' intellectual property is of the highest priority for Simon & Schuster," the publisher said in a statement expressing gratitude for the help of authorities.

Reuters