Miami’s ‘fake sheikh’ may plead guilty to millions in cons from here to Europe — or maybe not

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Miami Herald

Since he has spent much of his life pretending to be someone else — including a Saudi prince — Anthony Gignac has struggled with the idea of pleading guilty to charges that he conned millions out of investors from Miami to London.

Last May, after two false starts, Gignac finally pleaded guilty to impersonating a foreign government official, stealing other people’s identities and conspiring to commit wire fraud.

But then, after blaming his defense attorney for keeping him in the dark, Gignac made a move to withdraw his guilty plea in August just before being sentenced — and a federal judge in Miami let him do it.

Now, the ever-vacillating Gignac — who once lived in an exclusive Fisher Island condo but calls the Miami Federal Detention Center home — has decided to plead guilty again, on Tuesday, before an April trial, according to court records. It’s unclear what he’s going to plead to, because his fourth lawyer, public defender Ayana Harris, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office won’t say.

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They were suspicious when he used the alias "Sheikh Yerbooti..."