Nick Miller

"Today, we're going to talk one of the biggest scams of all time - real estate," John stated grandly as class got started. "It's a fucking swindle in most countries even when done above the board, which means it's ridiculously easy to do it even when you haven't got a cigarette to sell."

"George Parker was one of the most audacious con men in American history. He made his living selling New York's public landmarks to unwary tourists. His favorite object for sale was the Brooklyn Bridge, which he sold twice a week for years. He convinced his marks that they could make a fortune by controlling access to the roadway. More than once police had to roust naive buyers from the bridge as they tried to erect toll barriers. Other public landmarks he sold included the original Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grant's Tomb and the Statue of Liberty."

"Now, George had many different methods for making his sales. When he sold Grant's Tomb, he would often pose as the general's grandson. He even set up a fake 'office' to handle his real estate swindles. He produced impressive forged documents as evidence to suggest that he was the legal owner of whatever property he was selling. He also successfully sold several successful shows and plays, of which he had no legal ownership."

"Parker was convicted of fraud three times. After his third conviction on December 17, 1928 he was sentenced to a life term at Sing Sing Prison by a Judge McLaughlin in the Kings County Court and he spent the last eight years of his life there incarcerated."

"Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava, better known as Natwarlal, was a noted Indian con man known for having repeatedly "sold" the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and the Rashtrapati Bhavan and also the Parliament House of India along with its 545 sitting members. Now that takes talent," John sighed, envious. "By profession he was a lawyer before he turned into a conman, which you could say are the same thing."

"He used more than 50 aliases, was a master of disguises and used novel ideas to cheat and was master in forging signatures of famous personalities. He is also said to have cheated number of industrialists including Birlas and Dhirubhai Ambani taking from them huge money in cash, posing as social worker or needy person. Also he had duped many shop-owners with lakhs of rupees, paying them by cheque and demand drafts, which were later found to be forged."

"Natwarlal was arrested several times, but was last seen by authorities on June 24, 1996; when the wheelchair-using octogenarian vanished while being transported from prison to a hospital for treatment. He disappeared at New Delhi railway station, when he was being taken to AIIMS, under police escort from Kanpur jail for treatment, after which he was never seen by anyone. He was 84 years of age at that time. In 2009, his lawyer requested that 100 charges pending against Natwarlal be dropped claiming that Natwarlal died on July 25; however, Natwarlal's brother, Ganga Prasad Srivastava, subsequently claimed to have cremated him in 1996. No one knows which claim is true."

"So here's your assignment. Pick a landmark from the island, then try to sell it to your classmates. Let's see what you can come up with."