Erich von Däniken

Erich von Däniken (born April 14, 1935 in Zofingen, Switzerland) is a controversial Swiss author who is best known for authoring works about extraterrestrial influence on human culture since prehistoric times. He is one of the figures responsible for popularizing the paleocontact and ancient astronaut theories.

Von Däniken and forgery

Von Däniken first appeared before a magistrate while still a boy, charged with stealing money from the boy scouts. In the early 1960s, in his mid 20s, he was convicted of defrauding the hotel where he worked and also petty theft, for which he was fined.

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In 1967, at the age of 32, Von Däniken was convicted of a large scale embezzlement, forgery and tax evasion, and spent three and half years in prison. During his time in prison he wrote his second book, Gods from Outer Space (published in 1970).

Related Topics:
1967 - Embezzlement - Forgery - Tax evasion

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Von Däniken personally denies the various claims of wrongdoing other than the conviction leading to his imprisonment and claims that conviction was the result of a conspiracy against him by members of the Catholic hierarchy in Switzerland, intended to discredit his theories.

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Von Däniken has also used photographs of pottery depicting UFOs, claiming that the pottery came from an archaeological dig and dated to biblical times. The television series Nova determined that this was a fraud and located the potter who actually made the pots in question. When confronted with this evidence, Von Däniken argued that the deception was justified because some people would only believe his theories if they saw proof.

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