French authorities are investigating a literature professor, Florent Montaclair, for allegedly creating a fake Nobel-style prize and awarding it to himself and others, including the American intellectual Noam Chomsky. The investigation, led by public prosecutor Paul-Édouard Lallois in Montbéliard, eastern France, has uncovered what Lallois described as a 'gigantic hoax'.
Montaclair, a 46-year-old professor at the Marie and Louis Pasteur University in Besançon, is suspected of forging documents, impersonation, and fraud. The alleged scheme involved the creation of the International Society of Philology and its Gold Medal of Philology, which Montaclair awarded to himself at a ceremony at the French National Assembly in 2016. The medal was purchased from a Paris jeweller for €250.
The hoax began to unravel in 2018 when Romanian journalists from Scena9 investigated the award given to Romanian academic Eugen Simion. They discovered that the University of Philology and Education and the International Society of Philology existed only through websites created and hosted in France. Montaclair is also accused of using a fake 'state doctorate' from the same university to secure a promotion and pay rise.
During a search of Montaclair's home in February, he reportedly admitted ordering the medal and creating or running certain websites but denied any criminality. Lallois noted that Montaclair argued the medal could not be a forgery because no genuine philology medal exists. 'Anyone can create a medal,' Lallois said, but added that the key question is whether Montaclair obtained material gain from the alleged fraud.
The investigation continues, with detectives working to untangle what Lallois called a 'tissue of lies'. Montaclair remains under judicial supervision while the case proceeds.
