30 May An International Law Conman
This little gem of a story from a local paper in Annapolis, Maryland is an amusing profile of a guy who cons people by talking, in a self-important way, about international law and international organizations. Here is the opening:
At least one thing about Daniel Besser is clear: He’s a hell of a storyteller.
Ever since the stocky Australian started renting a small house in downtown Annapolis last year, he’s spun a fascinating tale to just about anyone who would listen.
It’s a story of international intrigue and state secrets, of one man’s fight to revolutionize United Nations peacekeeping efforts, save the children of Darfur and bring peace to the Middle East.
In just a few months, his passionate account of his struggle has won him contacts with – among others – a former secretary of the Air Force, a retired ambassador and the former head of the International Court of Justice.
Others were so touched by his lonely fight for peace that they gave him money to help him get by.
A remarkable story – but, he says, one that must not be told.
“The political resistance to what we’re advocating could be enormous,” Mr. Besser said in a telephone interview last week, begging that an article about him not be published. “If it leaks now, before it’s ready, then it’ll be dead.”
…
Bill Lamb, his landlord, was just the kind of real-estate expert needed to find a headquarters in Manhattan for the new U.N. institute he claimed to be setting up. And later, Mr. Lamb, who’s been a prison administrator, was the right man to head up the effort to construct criminal justice systems in rebuilding nations. Linda Dodd-Major, an immigration attorney who’d been helping Mr. Besser, was just the kind of “outside the box” thinker the institute needed.
Besser appears to be a conman who is facing criminal charges for leaving behind serious debts in the millions from his days in Australia. But he talks a good game – and he knows how to sound creditable. I have to say I sometimes wonder about the characters you meet at international conferences and such — people who drop names constantly and always have some big plans for some institute somewhere. Most of those people are creditable international law academics, actually, but it is apparently pretty easy to impersonate one of us.
Dear Julian, I comment here frequently, as you can painfully attest, and I’m not at all a ‘creditable international law academic.’ Indeed, I’m barely an academic at all, tenuously hanging on as a rather lowly adjunct instructor at a community college (and who was for many years prior to that a finish carpenter). Does that count as (damning) evidence for the proposition that ‘it’s…pretty easy to impersonate one of us’? I’ll admit to having fantasies of ‘revolutionizing the United Nations, saving the children of Darfur and bringing peace to the Middle East’–oh my, I suppose that’s yet more evidence of a transparent attempt to impersonate one of ya’ll. And I’ll admit to having a decent library of law books, including a fair number of titles in international law and politics. But if you’ve been a diligent reader, you’ll recall that I earlier confessed to not fitting into any of the categories that would permit one to submit a paper to the upcoming On-Line Symposium–‘Challenges to Public International Law’–sponsored by Opinio Juris. So at least it’s out in the open: I may be making a lame attempt at impersonation (and having a jolly good time at it!), but at least it… Read more »