- Florent Montaclair, a literature professor, received a fake 2016 Gold Medal of Philology at a ceremony in the French national assembly, which he had invented and bought himself.
- He is under investigation for forgery, fraud, and impersonation after allegedly using the fake award and a fake doctorate from a non-existent U.S. university to obtain a promotion and pay raise.
- The hoax began to unravel when Romanian journalists exposed that the International Society of Philology and its affiliated university were fake, created through websites hosted in France.
- Montaclair admitted to creating the medal and websites but denies wrongdoing, arguing that since no genuine medal exists, his cannot be a forgery.
- The prosecutor highlighted that fraud implications arise when such fake awards are used for professional gain, leading to academic recognition that Montaclair would not have otherwise achieved.