Roosevelt Presidential Library from December 2010 through July 2011.Īt the sentencing, prosecutors introduced evidence that Landau stole at least one item from the William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum in Ohio in 2005 17 to 100 items from the Culinary Arts Museum in Rhode Island in 2008 and more than 250 items from Betty Currie, a former White House secretary, in 2010.Įvidence presented at the sentencing hearing and court documents show that Landau had been stealing presidential documents and memorabilia for years before he met Savedoff, and it was Landau who taught Savedoff how to steal, the news release said. “What these documents stood for caused local and federal agencies to unite together to ensure that key pieces of our country’s history will remain forever accessible for our citizens.”Īccording to Landau’s plea agreement, he and his co-conspirator, Jason Savedoff, 24, stole documents from historical societies, the University of Vermont and the Franklin D. Landau was a prolific thief sent a wake-up call to museums, libraries and other institutions that entrust valuable historical items to persons who claim to be engaged in academic research.”Ī number of historical documents were returned to the museums that had been victimized, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard A. Landau was a con artist who masqueraded as a presidential historian to gain people’s trust so he could steal their property,” said U.S. More than 6,000 of them were stolen, prosecutors said.
Landau, 63, admitted in a plea agreement to having stolen from museums in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut and having sold some of those documents for profit.īlake also ordered Landau to pay a total of $46,525 to three dealers who bought documents from him without knowing they were stolen and to forfeit the more than 10,000 documents found in his New York apartment. Landau’s prison sentence to be followed by three years of supervised release.
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a self-proclaimed presidential historian who once claimed to have moved among White House circles to seven years in prison for conspiracy and theft of historical documents worth more than a million dollars.
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