The “Catch Me If You Can” con man who pretended to be a wounded US Army veteran, a British Airways executive and an MIT student now claims to be the son of a deceased senior member of the Irish Republican Army, according to his lawyer.
Jeremy Wilson, 42, persuaded top-notch defense attorney Eddie Hayes to take his case by insisting that his father is Brian Keenan, an IRA leader who was instrumental in the peace process between Ireland and England in the 1990s.
“The only reason I agreed to represent him is that he said he’s Brian Keenan’s son,” Hayes said. “Keenan was a revered figure.”
Keenan spent 18 years in prison for helping orchestrate a campaign of deadly London bombings in the 1970s and was implicated in the deaths of eight people. Keenan, considered a hero by many in his homeland, passed away in 2008.
Wilson provided Hayes with DNA proof of his storied lineage, but it’s still unclear if the documentation is authentic, the lawyer said.
“If he is Keenan’s son, he could be very important in Irish politics right now for reasons I can’t reveal,” Hayes said.
Wilson was arraigned Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges of forgery, possession of stolen property and a forged instrument.
Wilson, who is obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2002 film “Catch Me If You Can,” about a famed con man, tried to pull off his own impersonation scam from November 2015 to January 2016, authorities said.
He allegedly posed as a British Airways executive to rent a corporate apartment in Boston, where he stole computers and a corporate credit card from MIT, according to court papers.
He’s also charged with using a fake military ID and a bogus check to lease a BMW X3 at a Boston dealership, where he falsely claimed to have earned two Purple Hearts during his tours of duty.
Authorities tracked the $55,000 BMW, which was reported stolen by the dealership, to a garage in the Financial District, leading to Wilson’s arrest.
A raid on his $5,000-a month apartment turned up a cache of fake IDs, military medals and more than 200 forged checks, authorities said.
The career criminal, who has a long rap sheet that spans half a dozen states, was only sprung from prison late last year after serving a six-year stint for impersonating a military officer.
“The defendant’s entire lifestyle has been defined by deception,” said District Attorney Cy Vance in a statement. “Like many identity thieves, the defendant is a career criminal capable of causing a great deal of harm in a short amount of time, and I thank our partners in law enforcement for working together to bring the defendant’s alleged spree to an end.”
Wilson is being held on $1 million bail.