Con man Jeremy Wilson, who has claimed he is the lovechild of the late IRA leader Brian Keenan, has been ditched by his lawyer.
Wilson (42) has impersonated war veterans and Microsoft executives as well as undocumented Irish immigrants with IRA connections. From his high school days until now he has assumed 27 identities in five different states and swindled his way into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Attorney Eddie Hayes, a prominent Manhattan lawyer, will no longer represent the serial con artist because he doubts Wilson is Keenan’s offspring, the New York Post reports.
The conman claimed his mother had an affair with Keenan after meeting him at a rally in Ireland in the early 1970s. Keenan led bombing campaigns in the UK in the 70s, for which he spent 18 years in prison, and “later played a role in the peace process for Northern Ireland” before passing away in 2008.
Read more: The unbelievable cons of an impostor who claims to be an IRA bomber’s son
His life has been a trail of aliases, accents, lies & betrayal: character study of a conman https://t.co/rlSvqD6PTN pic.twitter.com/2eEpVWxknT
— Rick Rojas (@RaR) February 4, 2016
The “Catch Me if You Can”-like swindler was most recently arrested for posing as a wounded U.S. Army veteran to con his way to a posh pad and a luxury BMW lease. He has also pretended to be a British Airways executive and an MIT student, said authorities.
The Irish American Hayes said: “I just don’t know what’s going on. The reason I withdrew is I’m Irish American, I go to Ireland all the time, and I don’t want to be in a position where I’d be embarrassed over there.”
Wilson’s new lawyer Robert Briere told Justice Laura Ward that his client insists his real name is Jeremy Keenan. However, Ward said she wouldn’t change the name on court documents without solid proof.
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