Henry Ford did

The dismal economic times of the 1930s fostered a spree of major and minor crimes, including an army of con men roaming the country. One young Hungarian immigrant s genius for masquerade extended to impersonating noted people in order to prey on Industrialists and celebrities. His success prompted J. Edgar Hoover to write in the American Magazine, May 1937:

We sometimes refer to September 28, 1934, as Celebrity Day. That was the date of the great roundup, when we took into custody a German baron, several sons of American ambassadors, a few popular polo players, a member of the Wickersham Committee, a third assistant solicitor general of the United States, an Army colonel, a government undercover man, an around-the-world flier, a motion picture magnate, a number of house guests of industrial giants and multimillionaires, and the manager of the world s biggest doll factory. But this crowd of important men sat in only one chair. They were all represented in the multiple personality of a single individual, George Robert Gabor.

After the imposter s 1936 deportation, Hoover said, We haven t heard of him again, and we don t want to. But you never can tell.

Within months, the Bureau suspected that Gabor had returned, but they failed to find him. In 1942, a clever ruse by the swindler led the FBI to close the case. Hoover never learned that he, too, had been conned.