By now we’ve all heard of Toronto’s imported fraudster, prominent New York lawyer Marc Stuart Dreier. He was caught last week attempting to impersonate Michael Padfield, senior legal counsel of investments with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan board. The Harvard Law School and Yale College graduate was locked up for three days at Maplehurst Detention Centre in Milton last week before being released on $100,000 bail.
We’ve since learned that he’s also been charged with carrying out a “stunning, brazen fraud” in which he acquired at least $113 million in profit. Dreier, 58, appeared in court yesterday, on a charge involving the alleged attempted sale of $45 million in bank notes.
As his trial gets underway, Precedent thought we might visit our handy screening room for a trip down con man lane. For a survey of the lives of some often charming, rarely honorable, dirty, rotten scoundrels – we bring you our top five fraud flicks.
The Sting (1973)
The Grifters (1990)
Fargo (1996)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Shattered Glass (2003)
** Check out Matt Damon’s masterful imitation of soft-spoken crooner Chet Baker, the sweetest and least homicidal of his impersonations in The Talented Mister Ripley (1999).
Did we miss any? Post your top con man flick below.