Frank Abagnale, Jr.

Frank William Abagnale Jr. (born April 27, 1948) is an American-French con man, convicted felon, author, and security consultant whose documented crimes consist primarily of cheque fraud and petty theft targeting individuals and small businesses. He later became famous for claiming that, while still a teenager, he impersonated a Pan American World Airways pilot, physician, lawyer, and university professor while traveling internationally and passing millions of dollars in fraudulent checks. These claims formed the basis of his 1980 autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, co-written with Stan Redding. The book inspired the film of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg in 2002, in which Abagnale was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, and later a Broadway musical adaptation.

Journalistic investigations beginning in 1978 found no evidence to support most of Abagnale's biographical claims, and later research found that Abagnale was incarcerated for much of the period during which he claimed to have carried them out. Records do support limited airline impersonation, check fraud, travel in Europe, and imprisonment in France, Sweden, and the United States, but his documented federal Pan Am check case involved ten forged checks totaling less than $1,500. In 2020, author Alan C. Logan published an investigation drawing on public records, prison documents, and newspaper archives that concluded the majority of Abagnale's claimed criminal history was fabricated. Abagnale runs Abagnale and Associates, a consulting firm he founded in 1976.