Anthony Gignac: What happened to the fake Saudi prince from Miami?
Anthony Gignac, the self-proclaimed Prince, was jailed for eighteen years because of fraud. A judge from Florida mentioned that Gignac faked his identity as a prince to swindle $8 million from investors. The US Attorney Fajardo Orshan stated that Anthony pretended to be a Saudi prince for the sake of manipulation and victimization. Before his jailing, the fake Saudi Prince had a luxurious life similar to that of royalty.
Source: UGC
He was always dressed in precious jewellery, travelled in private jets or cars with diplomatic license plates, and carried business cards claiming to be a Sultan. He referred to himself as Prince Khalid. Gignac continues to serve his sentence at the Federal Detention Centre in Miami, Florida, till his release date.
Profile and bio
- Name: Anthony Enrique Gignac
- Birth name: Anthony Moreno
- Gender: Male
- Age: 50 years
- Birthplace: Bogota, Colombia
- Ethnicity: Mixed Asian and American
- Parents: Names unknown (Adoptive)
- Siblings: Daniel Gignac
- Studied in: Miami, Florida
- Fake persona: Prince Khalid
- Investment company: Madison Williamson International LLC
- Jailed in: Miami, Florida
- Prison name: Federal Detention Centre, Miami Florida
- Instagram: @princedubai_07
- Business partner: Carl Williamson
Early life
Anthony Enrique Gignac was born in 1970 in Bogota, Colombia. He was born Anthony Moreno but changed his name as he grew older. When he was a kid, his parents deserted him and he began living in the streets of Colombia with his three-year-old brother. At the same time, children who were his agemates attended kindergarten
Luckily, after seven years without any parental figures, Tony and his brother Daniel Gignac were adopted by a middle-class American couple.
Years passed and their adoptive parents divorced. Daniel expressed how tough it was for them when this happened. He told Ayana Harris, their public defender, that Anthony had to step up as the older brother and take care of him again a second time.
His early struggles in life affected him immensely, especially when he looked at the rich people in Colombia flourish while he mooched on the streets. He had a craving to become someone significant.
A childhood of lies
Before his adoptive parents' divorce, Gignac went to school in Miami. His school life was quite dramatic. Other than the reports of his good grades in school, Anthony had a different personality in school. He was a pathological liar. First, he lied to his classmates about how wealthy and famous his parents were. The lies kept escalating until the day he went up into informing car franchises that he was a Saudi Prince and his father will buy him a Mercedes.
Gignac was undergoing mental health issues. His childhood trauma affected his mental wellness and made him desire greatness and pursue it at all costs. His mental health issues provoked concern from his parents that took him to a clinical therapist(Lisa Whitehead) at age 12. However, their efforts were in vain because he did not cease to speak of his significance and wealth, something that he had not acquired yet.
Gignac's life of crime
Anthony underwent a mental breakdown after his parents' divorce. He decided to leave home at 17 and managed to persuade a Michigan family that he was Prince Adnan Khashoggi, the notorious arms dealer. Gignac's life of crime commenced at this point.
Source: Instagram
He faked his identity to attain wealth from the rich with the help of Carl Marden Williamson. His partner helped Gignac get forged diplomatic license plates from eBay, and he guaranteed Florida's elite that he had known the Prince and his family for 20 years.
Anthony has paid frequent visits to jail for a variety of reasons concerning money. His unwavering dedication to eradicating poverty in his life and gain significance was unstoppable.
Williamson and Gignac established an investment company, Madison Williamson International LLC, and after a while, 26 investors transferred close to $ 6.2 million into their account.
Gignac's plans foiled
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Before his arrest in 2019, Gignac had a plan to meet with billionaire Jeffrey Soffer and strike a big deal. Soffer even provided a private jet to facilitate his coming. Tony hoped that Soffer would give him 30% of the well-known Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach for $440 million.
Soffer's team discovered that he was a fake prince. The first sign that made Soffer's team pay close attention to him was a phone call from his friend in Miami. The caller told him they were checking to see if he owns one of the 54 luxury condos in Miami. Next, suspicions arose when he ordered prosciutto at a restaurant, yet pork is a no-go zone for Muslims.
Source: Instagram
Caught in his lies
Gignac knew that he was in trouble and started to act crazy and requested an expensive gift from Soffer's associate. A $50,000 offer goes to Tony, but Soffer's team did further investigations. First, they communicated with the Saudi family to confirm if he was a Prince there. Unfortunately, the feedback was negative after e-mailing a friend to the Saudi royal family to ask if Gignac was a prince.
Soffer's team involved the FBI in this issue, and there was enough evidence that Gignac was impersonating a diplomat and travelling on someone else's passport. So, they started tracing his far-flung route from Dubai to Hong Kong to London and apprehended him when he alighted at JFK International airport with a considerable amount of cash.
Gignac was upset that they released Williamson during his arrest, yet he was a mastermind in his schemes.
The latest news on Anthony Gignac
During his first trial, Gignac denied almost everything that led to his undoing. Sources have it that he is a master with people. Jordan said that he plays the part, whatever part is at that moment.
It was not easy to break him to accept all he had done, but Gignac later confessed that he was guilty of all the schemes mentioned during the 2019 sentence as noted in the Miami Herald.
The entire blame of this entire operation is on me, and I accept that.
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Source: Briefly News
