Swindler Posing as Prince Made One Dumb Move

The Miami Herald has an interesting tale of an international swindler now locked up and awaiting sentencing for posing as Saudi royalty. The craziest part of the story is that Anthony Gignac, who was born in Colombia, might still be free if he hadn't made his intended target suspicious with his choice of meals. "Gignac happily wolfed down bacon and pork products during meals, which as a devout Muslim prince should have been against his religion, according to a source with knowledge of the case," writes Jay Weaver. The story recounts how Gignac tried to fleece Florida real estate developer Jeffrey Soffer.

Using the alias Sultan Bin Khalid Al-Saud, the 47-year-old Gignac pretended to be interested in investing in Soffer's Fontainebleau resort hotel on Miami Beach. The two had a series of meetings last year, and while Soffer initially bought the story—shelling out $50,000 to Gignac in luxury gifts—he eventually became suspicious, had his security team vet the "prince," and then alerted the feds. The subsequent investigation reportedly turned up 26 victims worldwide in the last few years who shelled out a total of $8 million to the bogus sultan. Click for the full story. (More pork stories.)