EPTThe FBI called the “scope and notoriety” of the allegedly purloined documents “truly breathtaking.”
A famous Presidential historian has been caught, along with 1 young man aged 24, in a theft and fencing scandal. Copies of speeches penned by Franklin D. Roosevelt, an 1861 property deed signed by Abraham Lincoln and a 1780 letter sent by Benjamin Franklin to Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones were among dozens of documents seized by the FBI. It is estimated that they have stolen millions of dollars worth of presidential documents and artifacts from museums across the U.S., but primarily in the Northeast.
For me, there is almost a level of fantasy about the whole thing - Ocean's 11 or National Treasure style. Under the guise of a presidential historian student, using fake names and fake IDs, Jason would infiltrate various museums and educational institutions in order to do "research". Once inside, he would somehow get his hands on pre-targeted, valuable documents and artifacts and get out without being caught by security - presumably having to leave behind fake versions in some circumstances. He was doing this even after museums across North America had bolstered their security in light of a similar theft ring that operated in Europe. His ability to do this effectively was facilitated by a highly respected, famous, and published presidential historian who is regularly called as an expert on TV during elections and other big events to talk about current presidents relative to their predecessors.
That said, the main reason that it feels like a fantasy to me is because the 24 year old being implicated in this case sat beside me in Spanish class for 3 years and took a variety of other classes with me all through high school. He was a really smart guy - he was in advanced placement stream classes for everything, got straight A's, and was a really social, good looking and charismatic guy. He could have gone into anything and been extremely successful; in fact, I expected that he would be a big player in business one day.
I guess he got sucked in with the fantasy of it all as well. I mean, these weren't just random items he was stealing...these were U.S. presidential documents and artifacts that could sell and probably did sell on the black market for millions of dollars.
It boggles my mind. Currently facebook is exploding with excitement from everyone who knows him. It still seems somewhat fantastical to me, however, I've no doubt that the fantasy has ended for him as he is being prosecuted in U.S. court. The fantasy for him probably ended when security caught him bringing documents into the bathroom and called the police. He knew that he was busted, so he started freaking out and, according to police, probably flushed the documents he had just taken down the toilet. Not only that, but the prospect of being detained in a U.S. prison probably doesn't sit well. I've heard that U.S. prisons are quite the rough ride - at least compared to Canadian and European prisons.
He will serve his time in prison (hopefully in one of the white-collar crime ones...I don't know whether his type of theft qualifies him for it though). Given how smart he is, I bet that he has hidden at least some of his proceeds of sale (if he has received any) so that he can recover it after he is released from prison.
That all said I don't condone or support his actions...but I feel like they could make a pretty cool movie.
http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/indicted stealing presidential artifacts worth millions/5194947/story.html
+ Show Spoiler +
A young Canadian man has landed at the centre of a high-profile criminal case in the U.S. involving a prominent presidential historian and the alleged theft of what investigators have called a "truly breathtaking" array of rare documents and other memorabilia worth millions of dollars.
Copies of speeches penned by Franklin D. Roosevelt, an 1861 property deed signed by Abraham Lincoln and a 1780 letter sent by Benjamin Franklin to Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones were among dozens of documents seized by the FBI and Baltimore police from 24-year-old Canadian citizen Jason Savedoff and his apparent mentor, 63-year-old American antiquarian Barry Landau.
Savedoff, a former B.C. resident and McGill University student, had been working in New York City over the past year with Landau, who claims to have been a White House protocol officer and is well known in the U.S. heritage community as a collector of artifacts related to the U.S. presidency.
Landau, author of a coffee-table book about White House culinary history, has appeared regularly over the years on U.S. television networks as an expert on presidential inaugurations, pets and social functions.
Savedoff — who is also said to have used the aliases Jason James and Justin Ward — has been charged with stealing heritage treasures from several U.S. libraries, museums and archives in New York, Connecticut and Maryland. Both he and Landau face up to 15 years in prison, though investigators are still gathering evidence in the probe and have alerted historical institutions throughout the northeast U.S. to examine their holdings for signs of theft.
Prosecutors said in court last week that they suspect Savedoff also flushed an unidentified archival document down a library toilet moments before he was apprehended on July 9 in the Baltimore headquarters of the Maryland Historical Society.
Another 60 documents were recovered from a laptop bag found in a locker at the library. And police are conducting searches of Landau's New York apartment, which has been described in published profiles as a museum-like showcase of the collector's unrivalled holdings of items related to presidential inaugurations, White House pets and historical Washington social events.
"This scheme, which was exposed thanks to a vigilant employee of the Maryland Historical Society, a quick response by the Baltimore Police Department and State's Attorney's Office and a swift investigation by the FBI, should send a wake-up call to museums that entrust valuable documents to persons who claim to be engaged in academic research," Maryland district attorney Rod Rosenstein said in a statement announcing the charges against Landau and Savedoff.
"The indictment returned today alleges that these two individuals alienated historic records from the holdings of the American people," added Paul Brachfeld, an inspector with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, who detailed efforts to retrieve artifacts said to have been stolen by the pair.
"While our Archival Recovery Team has recovered thousands of records during my tenure," Brachfeld noted in the statement, "the scope and notoriety of what we have seized and secured in this case is truly breathtaking."
How Savedoff came to be associated with Landau wasn't immediately made clear. Savedoff's lawyer, Baltimore-based attorney Larry Nathans, couldn't be reached Tuesday.
But Nathans was quoted in U.S. media reports from a bail hearing last week saying that Savedoff was well-educated and an accomplished violinist who was suffering stomach problems in prison and should be freed from custody under his mother's supervision.
Savedoff's mother reportedly travelled from Canada to Baltimore to support her son, and a Rosenstein spokesperson said Tuesday that the accused man has been released into her care under strict curfew conditions until his next court appearance.
He was also ordered to surrender his Canadian and U.S. passports.
Landau remains in custody pending the results of a new search of his home this week and a subsequent court hearing.
The indictment filed by prosecutors last month and obtained by Postmedia News alleges that the young Canadian was part of a scheme in which "Landau contacted purchasers and re-sellers of historical documents, manuscripts and cultural heritage in order to sell the items he stole and that were stolen by Jason James Savedoff for their financial gain."
Landau is dubbed "America's Presidential Historian" at his stylish website, where visitors can purchase his 2007 book The President's Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy.
His collection of presidential memorabilia, said to include thousands of U.S. political souvenirs and even an original key to the White House, has earned him widespread acclaim and evident access to the Oval Office.
The website is peppered with pictures of Landau posing with various presidents over the years, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Landau's collection of presidential artifacts "started at age 10," the website states. "After a chance meeting with President and Mrs. Eisenhower, they invited him to the White House, and he has been collecting ever since. In later life, he has served nine Presidents and worked with every White House since Lyndon Johnston's planning historic events."
The arrests of Landau and Savedoff come about five years after the FBI revealed details of a major theft of historic maps by Massachusetts antiquarian E. Forbes Smiley that forced archives in Europe and North America to review security procedures. Smiley was convicted in the thefts and spent time in jail but eventually co-operated with investigators to recover scores of cartographic treasures worth up to $3 million — including several important maps of early Canada — that he had stolen from museums and libraries in the U.S. and Britain.
Copies of speeches penned by Franklin D. Roosevelt, an 1861 property deed signed by Abraham Lincoln and a 1780 letter sent by Benjamin Franklin to Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones were among dozens of documents seized by the FBI and Baltimore police from 24-year-old Canadian citizen Jason Savedoff and his apparent mentor, 63-year-old American antiquarian Barry Landau.
Savedoff, a former B.C. resident and McGill University student, had been working in New York City over the past year with Landau, who claims to have been a White House protocol officer and is well known in the U.S. heritage community as a collector of artifacts related to the U.S. presidency.
Landau, author of a coffee-table book about White House culinary history, has appeared regularly over the years on U.S. television networks as an expert on presidential inaugurations, pets and social functions.
Savedoff — who is also said to have used the aliases Jason James and Justin Ward — has been charged with stealing heritage treasures from several U.S. libraries, museums and archives in New York, Connecticut and Maryland. Both he and Landau face up to 15 years in prison, though investigators are still gathering evidence in the probe and have alerted historical institutions throughout the northeast U.S. to examine their holdings for signs of theft.
Prosecutors said in court last week that they suspect Savedoff also flushed an unidentified archival document down a library toilet moments before he was apprehended on July 9 in the Baltimore headquarters of the Maryland Historical Society.
Another 60 documents were recovered from a laptop bag found in a locker at the library. And police are conducting searches of Landau's New York apartment, which has been described in published profiles as a museum-like showcase of the collector's unrivalled holdings of items related to presidential inaugurations, White House pets and historical Washington social events.
"This scheme, which was exposed thanks to a vigilant employee of the Maryland Historical Society, a quick response by the Baltimore Police Department and State's Attorney's Office and a swift investigation by the FBI, should send a wake-up call to museums that entrust valuable documents to persons who claim to be engaged in academic research," Maryland district attorney Rod Rosenstein said in a statement announcing the charges against Landau and Savedoff.
"The indictment returned today alleges that these two individuals alienated historic records from the holdings of the American people," added Paul Brachfeld, an inspector with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, who detailed efforts to retrieve artifacts said to have been stolen by the pair.
"While our Archival Recovery Team has recovered thousands of records during my tenure," Brachfeld noted in the statement, "the scope and notoriety of what we have seized and secured in this case is truly breathtaking."
How Savedoff came to be associated with Landau wasn't immediately made clear. Savedoff's lawyer, Baltimore-based attorney Larry Nathans, couldn't be reached Tuesday.
But Nathans was quoted in U.S. media reports from a bail hearing last week saying that Savedoff was well-educated and an accomplished violinist who was suffering stomach problems in prison and should be freed from custody under his mother's supervision.
Savedoff's mother reportedly travelled from Canada to Baltimore to support her son, and a Rosenstein spokesperson said Tuesday that the accused man has been released into her care under strict curfew conditions until his next court appearance.
He was also ordered to surrender his Canadian and U.S. passports.
Landau remains in custody pending the results of a new search of his home this week and a subsequent court hearing.
The indictment filed by prosecutors last month and obtained by Postmedia News alleges that the young Canadian was part of a scheme in which "Landau contacted purchasers and re-sellers of historical documents, manuscripts and cultural heritage in order to sell the items he stole and that were stolen by Jason James Savedoff for their financial gain."
Landau is dubbed "America's Presidential Historian" at his stylish website, where visitors can purchase his 2007 book The President's Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy.
His collection of presidential memorabilia, said to include thousands of U.S. political souvenirs and even an original key to the White House, has earned him widespread acclaim and evident access to the Oval Office.
The website is peppered with pictures of Landau posing with various presidents over the years, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Landau's collection of presidential artifacts "started at age 10," the website states. "After a chance meeting with President and Mrs. Eisenhower, they invited him to the White House, and he has been collecting ever since. In later life, he has served nine Presidents and worked with every White House since Lyndon Johnston's planning historic events."
The arrests of Landau and Savedoff come about five years after the FBI revealed details of a major theft of historic maps by Massachusetts antiquarian E. Forbes Smiley that forced archives in Europe and North America to review security procedures. Smiley was convicted in the thefts and spent time in jail but eventually co-operated with investigators to recover scores of cartographic treasures worth up to $3 million — including several important maps of early Canada — that he had stolen from museums and libraries in the U.S. and Britain.
