Fred Brito claims he’s “The Benevolent Con”

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.