Prolific Bunco Artist Gets New Identity: Prison Inmate

For almost two decades, Robert Schnepf has been accused of using elaborate aliases—and even an embroidered fire department uniform—to run cons up and down the Eastern Seaboard. On Tuesday, the 48-year-old will finally be locked up for his crimes after a Florida judge sentenced him to four years in prison.

The State Attorney for the 12th Judicial Circuit told The Daily Beast that Circuit Court Chief Judge Charles E. Roberts sentenced Schnepf after he entered an open plea in two unrelated cases, one for violating the terms of his probation for grand theft and the other for attempting to defraud several individuals out of $23 million dollars worth of cars and homes in Sarasota years later. The plea means that Schnepf was not able to cut a deal with prosecutors and his fate rested in the hands of Roberts.

Last July, Schnepf was sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to swindling Laura Maslin Osenni and her then-husband out of thousands of dollars under the guise of repairing her home. Months later, Schnepf used a fake name to try to obtain two properties and a luxury car—and bizarrely also offered to donate $3 million to ESPN sportscaster Dick Vitale’s cancer foundation.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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