The Unknown Man

In 2013, a man in Toronto was arrested for committing over $400,000 in fraud. He claimed to be ‘Herman Emmanuel Fankem’, a French national living in Montreal. When the Canadian authorities contacted the French, it was found his passport was fake and they had no record of him. Further investigations uncovered other instances of him appearing in nearly 11 countries over the years under several more aliases. Being completely uncooperative, he refuses to answer any questions about his identity or past. Unable to identify him, the Canadian government can’t deport him, leaving him in limbo in a max security prison. He was scheduled to testify publicly in 2019 before the Immigration and Refugee Board, but at the last minute, the hearing was made private with no media or public allowed. Under Canadian law, any of these hearings are to take place in public unless under extraordinary circumstances. Still to this day, he refuses to reveal his true identity.

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