<P> While posing as Pan Am First Officer "Robert Black", Abagnale forged a Harvard University law transcript, passed the Louisiana bar exam, and got a job at the Louisiana State Attorney General's office at the age of nineteen . He told a flight attendant he had briefly dated that he was also a Harvard Law School student, and she introduced him to a lawyer friend . Abagnale was told the bar needed more lawyers and was offered a chance to apply . After making a fake transcript from Harvard, he prepared himself for the compulsory exam . Despite failing twice, he claims to have passed the bar exam legitimately on the third try after eight weeks of study, because "Louisiana, at the time, allowed you to take the Bar over and over as many times as you needed . It was really a matter of eliminating what you got wrong ." </P> <P> In his biography, he described the premise of his legal job as a "gopher boy" who simply fetched coffee and books for his boss . However, a real Harvard graduate also worked for that attorney general, and he hounded Abagnale with questions about his tenure at Harvard . Naturally, Abagnale could not answer questions about a university he had never attended . Eight months later he resigned after learning the man was making inquiries into his background . </P> <P> Abagnale was eventually arrested in Montpellier, France, in 1969 when an Air France attendant he previously dated recognized him and informed police . When the French police arrested him, 12 countries in which he had committed fraud sought his extradition . After a two - day trial, he first served time in Perpignan's prison--a one - year sentence that the presiding judge at his trial reduced to six months . At Perpignan he was held nude in a tiny, filthy, lightless cell that he was never allowed to leave . The cell lacked a mattress, plumbing, and electricity, and food and water were strictly limited . </P> <P> He was then extradited to Sweden, where he was treated more humanely under Swedish law . During trial for forgery, his defense attorney almost had his case dismissed by arguing that he had created the fake checks and not forged them, but his charges were instead reduced to swindling and fraud . Following another conviction, he served six months in a Malmö prison, only to learn at the end of it he would be tried next in Italy . Later, a Swedish judge asked a U.S. State Department official to revoke his passport . Without a valid passport, the Swedish authorities were legally compelled to deport him to the United States, where he was sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison for multiple counts of forgery . </P>

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