Fake Economist Fools Portugal

See The fraudster who fooled a whole nation: Portuguese media pundit exposed as conman: Artur Baptista da Silva faces prosecution after faking his 'career' as an economics expert by Alasdair Fotheringham of The Independent.

What a heinous crime, impersonating an economist. There surely is no punishment too great for this outrage. His behavior is an insult to all real economists. Make him walk the plank. Throw him to the lions in the Coliseum.

Excerpts:

"As an ex-presidential consultant, a former adviser to the World Bank, a financial researcher for the United Nations and a professor in the US, Artur Baptista da Silva's outspoken attacks on Portugal's austerity cuts made the bespectacled 61-year-old one of the country's leading media pundits last year.

The only problem was that Mr Baptista da Silva is none of the above. He turned out to be a convicted forger with fake credentials and, following his spectacular hoodwinking of Portuguese society, he could soon face fraud charges.

Mr Baptista da Silva's conversion into the latest must-interview figure on the media circuit began when he turned up last April at Lisbon's main philanthropic institution, the Academia do Bacalhau, with a large supply of business cards – which, it later turned out, bore false credentials – and an impressive-sounding dissertation entitled Growth, Inequality and Poverty. Looking Beyond Averages which, it also transpired, was "borrowed" from its writer, a World Bank employee, via the internet.

At the time, Mr Baptista da Silva also claimed to be a social economics professor at Milton College – a private university in Wisconsin, US, which actually closed in 1982 – and to be masterminding a UN research project into the effects of the recession on southern European countries. He even, some reports say, tried to pass himself off as a former adviser to Portugal's President, Joaio Sampaio, and the World Bank."

Now if only more people watched more Law Order: Criminal Intent. Click on the link to see more information about that episode from 2002 titled "Phantom." Here is the description:

"Goren and Eames must untangle the story behind a mysterious man living a double life while telling his family that he is an economist for the United Nations. As his world of lies unravels, murder seems to be his only way out."

Here are links with more information on that episode:

Wikipedia  

Law Order Wiki