Catch Me If You Can

Despite an extraordinary ability to talk his way out of (or into) just about anything, Frank Abagnale was finally apprehended. Federal prosecutors in all fifty states wanted to try him. He ended up in Joe Shea's territory - Georgia.

Shea discerned the young con man could have a future OUT of prison - helping the United States government to catch people like himself - were he given the right deal. The FBI agent was instrumental in what followed.

Frank Abagnale served five years in a federal prison and spent the next twenty-five teaching (without pay) at Quantico, the FBI's Academy (located on the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Virginia). Over the years, he also made restitution of the $2.5 million he had scammed from various people and institutions.

Besides teaching FBI agents how to catch people like himself, Abagnale has written about check fraud and identity theft. Both of these crimes have reached epidemic proportions. In his book, The Art of the Steal, reformed Abagnale notes that if American businesses could stop the fraud against them for just two years

...we'd erase the national debt and pay Social Security for the next one hundred years.

In other words: It isn't prosecution of check fraud that helps businesses, it's prevention of business fraud that demands a high priority. To that end Abagnale, the former con man, teaches businesses everywhere how to protect themselves from fraud in today's wired world.

So how does Frank Abagnale, aged 54 at the time of the movie's release, view his past? How does he put it in context?