Dead Sea Scrolls ensnared in identity theft and academic sabotage

The AP has a brief report on a very strange case:

The son of a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar has been charged with using stolen identities on the Internet to trash an academic rival of his father.

Prosecutors say 49-year-old Raphael Haim Golb (GOHLB’) was arrested Thursday at his New York City home and charged with identity theft and criminal impersonation.

Prosecutors say Golb, a lawyer, sent e-mails to New York University officials to discredit Hebrew and Judaic studies professor Dr. Lawrence Schiffman.

They say Schiffman and Norman Golb of the University of Chicago hold conflicting theories on the origins of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls. The documents were found in caves near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956.