Frank Abagnale Essay Example

a choice at all. At the age of sixteen frank was living alone in Manhattan. He found a job but it was difficult for him to make ends meet on that little amount of pay. Eventually he came to the decision that he needed to find another job. In order to receive better pay Frank found it necessary to change his date of birth. At last Frank was able to live off the work he was doing on his own.

The events that proceeded these times are what made Frank Abagnale J. R. as famous as he is today. (Cite from video) Frank managed to make one good business contact. A supervisor with Pan Am offered Frank a low end job.

Not entirely pleased with the job he was offered frank managed to look up a warehouse that manufactured pilot’s uniforms. After managing to elude payment and the necessary Identification card Frank felt he was free to roam the country as he pleased. As a pilot, one was required to have an I. D. at all times. Frank then set his sights on acquiring an I.

D. He impostered as an executive looking to buy a machine apable of mass producing I. D. s. There he asked if they could show him how it worked by making one for himself.

After this all Frank needed was some glue and some stickers out of a toy airplane kit and he had his I. D. Always a step ahead of the curve he realized that his I. D.

did not exactly match many others. Because of this he managed to never be based out of any areas close

to whoever it was that he was dealing with. Pan Am estimated that frank flew over one million miles between his sixteenth and eighteenth birthday. Frank would hitch his free ride with the airline and immediately head for the airlines individual carriers.Here he would cycle through each airline and cash a check for 100 dollars.

Immediately after cashing a check he would get on line for the next carrier and do the same. He would continue this for nearly 8 hours. After 8 hours each carrier would get all new employees on duty and Frank would start all over again. After spending up to 16 hours cashing fraudulent checks he would stay at hotels for about 3 days and everything will be billed to the pan am airlines. By the time the airline would realize anything was wrong frank was on another plane and headed to another city to repeat his seemingly flawless endeavor.The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a John Doe warrant for interstate transportation of fraudulent checks.

This meant that the warrant issue frank as a 30 year old man and they did not know his identity. At the age of 18 frank quit his job as a co-pilot because of the John Doe warrant and moved to a single complex called riverbank apartment in Atlanta. On the application for lease he was questioned about his employment. He was not able to put air line pilot because it would be easy to check on. They also required the supervisor name and phone number.

On the application, frank put his occupation as a doctor because that would be hard to find information on. That will

justify why he had luxurious materials and why he does not work on a daily basis. His house manger was curious about his job as a doctor so she started asking questions such as what kind of doctor he was. His response was that he was a pediatrician and that was based on how he was living in a single complex. Frank informed the manager that he does not practice medicine at the moment because he left his practice in California.

He will not resume that row for another year.He apparently came to Atlanta to invest in real estate holding. When questioned by his neighbor about his education, he informed them he went to Columbia University in New York and had an internship at Harvard Children Hospital in Los Angeles. His neighbors knew him as doctor frank William. They would often seek advice from frank about their health.

Clearly he could not answer them so he would redirect them to their physician. After 3 months of living in river bank, a new neighbor came knocking at frank doorstep to introduce himself. He was also a pediatrician and he would try to talk to frank about medicine.Frank then decided to study medicine so that he will be able to have something to talk about with his new friend. Frank friend invited him to an opening of a new hospital in Georgia. He became friends with some of the doctors at the opening.

A few days later he received a call from the hospital administrator requesting for him to fill in for an absentee pediatrician for the next 10 days. Those ten days became a year. Although

he did not treat patients, administer medication or give a diagnosis, he would supervise a shift. His duty was to write his observations in the chart.

Not knowing what to do, Dr.Williams would mimic the work of the other doctors by just scribbling random things in the chart. After a year of being a medical doctor, frank resigned. He found out about a job opening in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a lawyer.

Frank being a man of interest decided to try this new challenge. An attorney general was requesting for a lawyer. In Louisiana, they practiced under the law of the napolemic criminal code. Frank Abagnale was required to study this law of code.

Frank forged a Harvard university law transcript. The law did not require one to take the bar test but however frank decided to take it without any prior knowledge of law.He was able to pass the test and become a lawyer for the state of Louisiana at the age of nineteen. He worked for the attorney general and trailed civil cases for a one year period. Abagnale next great venture was teaching at Brigham young University in Utah. He taught sociology for a semester “the task was not difficult because I read one chapter ahead of my students” (speech daily motion) At the age of twenty one frank was captured by the French police in 1969.

He was under custody for Interpol warrant. The police later discovered that frank had forge checks in France and he was wanted by other countries for raud. Before they were able to send him off somewhere else he had to stand trial. After a two

day trial, Frank served at the Perpignan’s house of arrest in France. He was sentenced to one year in prison but it was later reduced to six months. After he completed his 6 months stint in France, he was extradited to Sweden.

His case was reduced to swindling and fraud instead of forgery. He served another six months at the Malmo prison. United States returned him to back to states. He was charged with interstate transportation of fraud checks and flight to avoid prosecution.He was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison by the district judge. The federal prison was located at Petersburg, Virginia.

At twenty six years of age, frank was offered a deal by the government. If he assisted the government with his help, he will be released. He was to help identify fraudulent act and crimes committed by scam artists. After his release, frank worked many job such as a cook, grocer and a movie projector. Ones his employers found out about his criminal record he was fired. Frank felt that he was gifted with a talent that will be able to help other.

He stopped wasting his time and approached a bank about his ideas. He informed the bank that he often see mistakes being performed by a clerk or a customer on how they handle checks. If the con artist noticed these mistakes he would take great advantage of them. He wanted to give presentations to the banks employers about how to handle checks or cash vouchers and how to protect themselves from fraud and theft.

He informed the bank that if they felt his presentation was not beneficial he would

not be paid but if they think it is worthy they should pay him fifty dollars and spread th word around about his presentations.Within several months, banks, hotels, airlines and other business were in demand of franks ideas. For more than twenty five years frank worked for the FBI’s financial crimes unit. He now teaches at the FBI academy and the FBI national academy.

This is a program that instructs local, state and federal law enforcement agencies nationwide. He regularly lectures worldwide. He founded his own company, abagnale & associates which gives companies advise on fraud. He is now married with a wife and 3 sons.