Tom Santini was a reporter employed by the New York Ledger. He was acquainted with Detective Robert Goren. Goren asked Santini to write articles about how supposed murder victim and con man Denis Dupont was himself conned by "amateurs", in order to stoke his ego and bring him out into the open. "Dupont", later found to be Didier Foucault, called Santini in response to deny that he was a criminal. He claimed that he wanted to "cure the rich of their greed". He did not, however, reveal his location to Santini.