Last month Dr. Liane Leedom wrote an article called Fred Brito: A con artist profiled by Dateline. Dr. Leedom’s observations about the Dateline story were:
- Fred fooled many people who should have known better
- Fred fits the profile of a sociopath
- Fred projects positive energy that is nearly euphoric
- Fred has an enormous sense of entitlement
- Fred sought the company of high-status individuals
- Fred doesn’t appear to have a love life
Dr. Leedom’s comments about Fred strike me as being fairly mild. They aren’t the type of comments that a man who agreed to be interviewed by a national investigative television show, or someone who is running for state senator in New Mexico, should get worked up over.
But Fred didn’t like the Lovefraud story. He complained that in publishing it, Lovefraud did not talk to him and resorted to gossip.
Fred Brito’s story
So who is this guy? Here’s what it says on Fred’s website: “Fred Brito made some serious mistakes in his early life which led him to prison. When he was released and unable to find a job honestly due to his record, he fabricated his resume and was hired time and again. Fred Brito’s main focus was to work”¦not to steal. This sets him distinctly apart from other criminally minded con artists.”
Well, maybe. The Los Angeles Times printed a front-page expose of Fred Brito on August 28, 2005. It stated that Fred’s brushes with the law began in 1977, when he pled guilty to stealing $1,000 from a bank where he worked as a teller. He was given probation, broke his parole and fled to Canada, where he was arrested for numerous crimes. In 2002 he was charged with embezzling $600 from a law firm where he worked as an office manager.
But there are no laws against lying on a resume, and in the mid-1980s Fred started inventing identities and credentials. He claims to have been hired for a long list of senior management positions. He also got jobs as a court appointed psychiatrist at Los Angeles Superior Court Office of the Public Defender and as a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona.
In 2005, using the name Federiqkoe DiBritto III, Fred was hired as executive director of development at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, a job that paid $100,000 per year. After a few months he was discovered, fired and arrested. Authorities found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in his role at UCLA, so they didn’t send him back to jail. But the incident precipitated the LA Times expose about Fred Brito.
Officials at the American Red Cross in Pasadena, however, apparently didn’t read the story, even though was published 10 days after Fred began his new $60,000-a-year job there as a fundraiser. Fred eventually lost that job too.
Fred’s resume
So what is it about Fred’s resume that makes him so appealing? The four-page document claims he is a Ph.D. candidate at the Catholic American University of the Immaculate Conception, which doesn’t exist. Fred claims 24 years of experience with Caritas / Catholic Charities, which does exist, but undoubtedly doesn’t know anything about Fred.
His 14-page curriculum vitae includes a glowing recommendation from Harrison Winslow, who doesn’t exist. The CV lists a phone number for Winslow that goes Fred’s special cell phone. When it rings, Fred, as Winslow, strongly recommends himself for the job.
After all the media exposure, Fred seemed to lay low for awhile. But in 2006 he became Federico Gomez de Maria, and got a job as administrative director and fundraiser at the New Mexico Performing Arts Academy in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Blogger David Markland reported on March 8, 2007 that Brito admitted he was dismissed from the job for “not disclosing his full identity.” Brito then posted a comment stating that he legally changed his name from Fred Brito to Fred Gomez de Maria.
Fred fires back
Well, maybe. He certainly used the name Fred Brito when he contacted Lovefraud.
I posted a comment inviting Fred to tell his side of the story. In the meantime, “Shesaid,” a Lovefraud reader, posted the following: “Brito’s comment is just the ramblings of a lunatic – sociopaths will try to swoop in and distract with nonsense.” She also called Fred “a fake, phony liar, creep and criminal.”
Well, Fred really didn’t like that. He went on the attack against Shesaid, saying that our reader needs counseling. “You stated some severe accusations, as if you know me well,” Fred wrote. “It is a pity that you have never met me personally. If you had, you may have come away with a very different point of view.”
Fred’s comments were held in the moderation queue by the Lovefraud Blog software because he included his e-mail address and his website addresses. He invited us to contact him and find out what he is really all about. I have now released Fred’s comments. You can read them under the nickname “The Benevolent Con.”
WARNING: His attacks are direct and personal. Please DO NOT REPLY with the same type of comments. I am releasing them to illustrate a favorite tactic of sociopaths—the vitriolic offensive against people who don’t believe them.
Fred won’t talk
I sent Fred another e-mail requesting an opportunity to speak with him. Here is his reply:
I am not sure… as you will note… you have a bunch of crazies on your site. I admit… I have made some mistakes… but I have found that your site is very defensive and it appears that there are a lot of SCORNED Women on your site.
Any contribution that I would make would only add fuel to THEIR fire. I did not see that you interjected any moderation of your site. You allow people to rant and rave… and I have already had enough of that.
So I am not sure… what your desire is or your angle… But I don’t think your site is very therapeutic.
I did speak to Fred briefly on the telephone. He did not agree to be interviewed.
Fred says vote for me
But Fred claims we will soon see him on TV again, on 60 Minutes. He also says he is coming out with a book called The Master of Deception, and will be the subject of a movie by the same name.
And, last month Fred announced his candidacy for state senator in New Mexico. His press release asked, “What could stop Fred Brito from continuing to make history as the first ex-offender to be elected to public office?” Fred’s answer: “Absolutely Nothing!”
Yesterday, Fred posted on his blog that his publicist quit.
Perhaps Fred thinks his platform of “giving people a second chance” is enough to get him elected. But if I were in New Mexico, I don’t think I’d vote for Fred.
For a timeline of Fred Brito’s activities, see Fred Brito: Back In the Saddle Again, by David Markland.
As one who steals minds this fellow is simply the worst type of theif!
A lot of people ask if sociopaths can ever be cured. In order to heal they must renounce completely their addiction to power. Unlikely to ever happen here.
What the heck is it with this archaic SCORNED WOMAN defense?
And why do people still buy it?
We hear it so much it gets tiring. The minute a cyberpath writes us and mentions “she’s a scorned woman” (about 98% of the time) or “her bruised ego” – we know he’s guilty as charged.
SCORNED….ppffffttt
Well Fighter, isn’t it like pychos to always turn their actions around and “blame” the other person? It couldn’t possibly be anything THEY did.
I would say this is where the “Scorned Woman” comes from. Typical behavior of them. Once again they prove our point.
The reason Fred was probably canned by his publicist may have had something to do with Fred posting supposed positive articles about himself that he tried to pass off as being written by anyone other than himself. He tripped up once by posting as “Internet News Wire” but posting that he was Fred Brito. Whoops. That and every other positive “article” about him on his site can’t be found anywhere else, are from publications nobodys ever heard of, and from writers nobodys ever heard of.
BTW that whole Brito posed as a lawyer story I wouldnt believe since the only person who’s ever talked about it is Fred Brito himself. If anything comes out of Fred’s mouth I’d take with a grain of salt. Anything and everything.
He tried to add his blog link to my blog. I countered with Beware of sites that promote conning. I went to his website, and I saw the lies and the fact that he stated he was one of the greatest con artists in the world. Ha! My ex had been conning people since 1970, and Britos’ criminal career started in 1977. I don’t see his gimmick as anything as being a con, since he thrives on the publicity. I don’t see how any honest New Mexican will elect him as a senator, he has a proven criminal record, and he has shown that he has not changed his ways.
Las Cruces dismissed him, due to factors on his resume. He is a con trying to garner publicity for his life story, and how he fooled all those people in big government. So what, there are a lot of con men and women that fool people all the time. I believe that these crimes hurt people and he is NOT the Benevolent Con. Anyone that pretends to be a man of the cloth betrays people of that congregation, and betraying is what con men do. They betray people. I do not think the New Mexican citizens of this state will vote for a criminal who is still using different names. How can we allow that? I do not think we can elect a convicted felon to the Congressional House of Senate. I believe they lose their rights to ever vote again. This man is trying to get publicity so that he can make money for himself. He is NOT out to help other victims and calling victims SCORNED women, proves that.
I frankly think you are all giving this guy what he wants. PUBLICITY. Second, he seems to be making a lot of money and with a motion picture coming out, he will make even more. This is all so crazy. By writing all of this stuff and wasting time, gives him the publicity that he craves. YOU are all doing him a huge favor. To just stop and let this dweeb disappear would be a better way to knock him off his pedestal.
One more point… all of you write with a sense of hate and vindictiveness. Beating your chests like you are all mightier than thou. Any reader will think that you are all very hateful and as this guy says… “Scorned Women.” You actually prove it by HOW you write. And the word scorned is a word that I use lightly.
He, on the other hand actually writes with some common sense. While I DO NOT support him in the least or his past, he certainly comes across as smart, articulate and well rounded. He is by far the most accomplished Con Artist I have ever seen in my 23 years with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. I saw him on Dateline. He is very smooth.
So the point that I make is what you all write is just feeding HIS fire. If you stop and move on… you prevent him from feeding on the attention YOU give him.
Many of the comments that you all write are not quite accurate. There is nothing that anyone of us can do to stop a man like this. Only law enforcement can. And from what I was able to confirm from confidential records that I have access to, his last felony conviction was in June 2002 in Los Angeles Superior Court. That mean that he is seven years “clean.” What he has done since is nothing that violates the law. He can write all the resumes he wants and use any name he wants. It is not a crime.
Seven years without another arrest or conviction is a long “clean” stretch for a career criminal. Most criminals don’t last 90 days after release from prison. Is it even possible that he is on the road to recovery? Time will tell. So far seven years clean is a pretty good run.
The best thing that we can do is stop writing or talking about him. This does more to kill his ego than anything. He is a publicity hound.
I spoke to is Publicist. She is still this guys publicist, and will return to work for him when his book(s) get published. That is right BOOKS… he has three coming out, and a seminar tour across the U.S. and the Motion Picture. So it seems like this guy is going to be doing quite well financially despite what people say about him. It only makes his story even more interesting.
As for running for State Senate. He can legally do it. Once a convicted felon completes his parole, his voting rights are restored. New Mexico has a law that if you can vote, you can run for public office. If he runs, he not only gets local publicity… but national as well. Just what he is craving.
I am a Criminal Analyst for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, I have a pretty solid ability to track this guy… so I know what I am talking about.
One more point I wold like to recommend. If you are going to continue to write about him, which I know many of you will, be sure to write not from your emotions but from your brain. All of you come off as very angry and sour, and any reader like me will just think that you are all kind of ill as well as he is. Use your MIND not your emotions. That is what makes this guy come off so well. He uses his mind not his emotions. He wins… you lose when you come off sounding like (he says) “crazies.” It is just my observation. Take it for what it is worth.
I use my mind, I know how these people work too. Not only from a personal relationship but also a family member. The point was we are all on to him. It looks to me like the difference is we don’t put him on a pedestal.
Fred Brito is known to pose as other people and post comments in defense of himself. Seems that is what has happened with “takes22fight.” His e-mail address is from the same ISP as the address he supplied inviting contact.
Also, in reproducing his e-mail to Lovefraud, in which he called us a bunch of crazies, I cut out the last line. It was “Just my observation.”
yeah, c’mon. what criminal analyst for the LA Sheriff’s Dept is going to be reading this site?? Is there even such a department? A quarter of the way through it smelled bad to me. The LA Sheriff’s Dept. or police would be much more sympathetic to victims than this obvious phony entry (takes22fight) is.
Plus, all the bragging about book deals and movies.
That’s like the cops saying rape victims should stop being emotional when they discuss rape because it makes them seem like sour crazy crybabies. Bull!
Just more harrassment from a disturbed mental case that finds this site amusing to him. He is right about one thing. Ignore his sorry ass.
We should ignore him. I believe that once a convicted felon, they always lose their rights to vote, and I asked a judge here in NM. It isn’t the truth, sure he can run for Senate, but that isn’t really legal;” No person may hold any state or local elected office if the person has been convicted in any court of a felony in the UNITED STATES,” (that is from the US Government site. Besides what honest law abiding citizen will vote for him? I know I wouldn’t. I will not make another comment about him after this one. He reminds me too much of other con persons that talk the talk, but in the long run, cannot walk the walk. He isn’t the greatest con man in the world, no one gave him that title, and it isn’t even worth bragging about. If he was really clean, why did he find it neccessary to move from California, and then lie and use a different name to get a job in Las Cruces. Coming clean means just that, NO MORE LIES period.
Donna you do a great job with this blog, and I admire you for helping victims of con artists. Not all victims are women, so this site and others are not by a bunch of women full of hate. We just are tired of people continuing to victimize others, and are trying to prevent that. Life can be lived honestly, and truthfully without breaking the law.