Mauricio Aguirre’s appreciation for rare and expensive fountain pens has once again landed him in federal prison.

And once again, to obtain the prized collectibles, he tapped the elaborate fantasies swirling in his head.

The notorious scoundrel who once charmed his way into a college deanship in Dallas was sentenced Friday to 15 months in prison for creating counterfeit presidential and U.S. government memorabilia to trade for bejeweled custom pens worth thousands. He received 57 months in federal prison in 2006 for a nearly identical con.

This time, Aguirre forged a John F. Kennedy bronze presidential seal and authentication documents that he used to obtain pens from four dealers while posing as a lobbyist based blocks from the White House, prosecutors say.

A creative and prolific impostor, Aguirre, 49, of Dallas, has not been able to stop. He has three previous federal fraud convictions and has used a host of aliases, false identities and other fictions to pull off his scams. He said in a motion for a lesser sentence in 2006 that he "can't control himself."

Mauricio Aguirre's 2016 booking photo (Hunt County)

Psychologists say that is a common trait among con men.

“They don’t experience guilt or fear and are always looking for an edge,” said William E. Flynn, Dallas forensic psychologist and courtroom expert who’s spent a career studying the criminal mind. “They are people who don’t learn from punishment.”

Flynn said most people are less likely to commit crimes the older they get. Not so with con men, he said. “They often don’t age out.”

Mike Snipes, a former Dallas County judge who defended Aguirre in 2005, said he's not evil, just delusional.

“He thinks he’s something he’s not,” he said. “That’s why he’s always getting in trouble. Because of the fantasies he has.”

Delusions of grandeur

Money doesn’t appear to be a big motive for Aguirre. Unlike in many white-collar fraud cases, the amount he scammed is in the low thousands, not millions. Acquaintances said he craved something else: attention and respect.

To pull off his elaborate deceits over the years, Aguirre created for himself the veneer of an Ivy League-educated man of business and world affairs with elite political connections all the way to the White House who was chummy with celebrities and important people.

In a failed attempt in 2005 to prove his “significantly reduced mental capacity,” Aguirre presented a letter from his psychotherapist who opined that he suffered from depression, anxiety, narcissistic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder.

The therapist said he based his diagnosis on Aguirre’s “fantasies of unlimited success, sense of entitlement, an intense desire to be successful and admired at the expense of truthfulness, and interpersonal exploitation of others to achieve his own needs and goals.”

The Montegrappa Cosmos Enigma Gold Limited Edition Fountain Pen — one of the pens Aguirre was convicted of stealing (Airline International Luggage)

The prosecutor in that case, however, said Aguirre's actions showed not a lack of impulse control but "the deliberate acts of a man who knowingly deceives others to make himself feel important." She noted that Aguirre had his mother pose for a photo as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher while using a fountain pen he got from one of his victims.

During his 2006 sentencing, Aguirre told the judge: "I'm fully aware that I need help, and I want help." U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders ordered him to undergo mental health treatment as part of his sentence but said he didn't want to bet on him going straight.

As part of the latest ruse, Aguirre forged a letter supposedly signed by President Kennedy in 1962, as well as a White House seal from the President George W. Bush administration and a photograph of an eagle statue supposedly used by President George H.W. Bush.

He also created a counterfeit eagle statue he claimed belonged to former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, court records show.

Federal agents in 2013 seized hundreds of objects from his Dallas home during a search, including 43 wax seal stamps, 68 silver badge emblems and 49 pairs of cufflinks. They also took dozens of metal seals supposedly from the White House, Buckingham Palace, the House of Lords, Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales.

“It’s the thrill of the hunt,” said his latest victim, William Weakley, a Maryland pen dealer. “He has evidently not learned his lesson.”

A list of items agents seized from Mauricio Aguirre's Dallas home during a 2013 search. (Krause, Kevin / Federal court file)

To land prominent jobs, Aguirre forged a Harvard University transcript. One of his Linkedin accounts currently says he has a Yale University master's degree. He once charmed Texas conservatives into thinking he was a well-connected Republican activist. His trickery also landed him a job as dean of the Dallas County Community College District. He resigned in 2005 after The Dallas Morning News exposed his fake degree.

Later that year, he pleaded guilty to mail fraud for tricking a pen magazine publisher into sending him 11 pens worth about $17,000 in exchange for free publicity. He did so by boasting about having worked in the White House and being invited to George W. Bush’s ranch near Crawford.

Aguirre said he gave the victim's pens to Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and he forged a thank-you note from Bush to the victim on counterfeit White House letterhead.

Aguirre even fooled a federal judge into giving him probation for the 2005 fraud case by forging his own dire medical diagnosis. His attorney also was tricked into thinking Aguirre had a serious heart and lung condition. When prosecutors discovered the ruse, Aguirre’s probation became prison time.

But while awaiting that sentence, Aguirre wasn’t done. He tricked a London jeweler into sending him samples of cuff links with a fake story about wanting to sell them at an upcoming social function that Britain’s Prince Andrew would be attending.

At the time of his October 2016 arrest, Aguirre appeared to be employed as executive vice president of a New York City private equity firm under the alias Fernando Aguirre, federal court records show. His bio on the Behr Group Holdings website says he lives in Greenwich, Conn., and is sometimes known as the "Rainmaker" for his ability to make things happen.

It says he's worked in the defense industry and was an "invaluable asset" to Republican gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. Aguirre also says in the online bio that he was a former liaison between the U.S. State Department and Mexico who regularly collaborated with the White House and National Security Council.

But it was revealed Friday in court that the website and New York company also are fake.

Aguirre’s release on bond was revoked in March 2017 for keeping information from his pretrial officer, and he’s been detained in federal custody since, according to court records. Aguirre, who has been suicidal before, spent the past six weeks in solitary confinement, according to Friday testimony.

‘Fear of failure?’

Aguirre has been called intelligent, charming and personable. He’s also been described — by his own attorney — as sad, delusional and lonely.

His exploits are not unlike those of the famous impostor Frank Abagnale Jr., who as a young man assumed numerous identities including airline pilot, doctor and federal agent. His life was the subject of a 2002 film, "Catch Me if You Can."

Mauricio Aguirre forged this letter from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher around 2005 to trick a pen dealer into thinking she used one of its pens. He actually kept the pen for himself, prosecutors said. (Federal court case)

Aguirre was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. in 1985 as a teenager, settling in San Antonio with his mother, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

He is fluent in Spanish and at 6 feet 4 inches and 275 pounds is an imposing figure. He is married to a “mind-body psychotherapist” whose specialties include treating depression, anxiety and “compassion fatigue,” according to her website.

His wife of 20 years, Julie Aguirre, told U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater on Friday that her husband “wants nothing more than to get better” and has a “big heart.”

That led to an exchange with David Finn, his attorney.

“He’s a knucklehead, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Why stick with him?”

“I see a light in him and I love him.”

Aguirre’s legal troubles go as far back as 1996, when he served a year in federal prison for using a San Antonio lawyer’s credit card to buy airline tickets.

When he got out of prison, an immigration judge deported him to Mexico. He returned legally weeks later.

Mauricio Aguirre created stories about working in the White House to dupe his victims over the years, prosecutors say. (Facebook)

Not long after, he flashed a fake State Department badge in an attempt to get a free room at the Hotel Crescent Court in Dallas and was charged with impersonating a federal agent. For that, he served four months in prison.

Next he made a foray into politics by starting the National Council for a Republican Congress in 2001. He resigned after being caught in numerous lies.

Months later, he was hired as dean of planning and resource development at the Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development in Dallas. His impressive resume listed a master's degree in business administration from Harvard and jobs at the White House and State Department. Again, all were faked.

Beginning in 2004, to satisfy his penchant for handcrafted designer pens, Aguirre took to posing as a former Washington, D.C., insider with a trove of presidential memorabilia for trade.

One of Aguirre's first victims of the pen scam was Jerry Kallman, president of El Paso-based Airline International Luggage, which sells luggage, pens and gifts.

Kallman said Aguirre had an “international type of accent” and an impressive vocabulary.

“There would be no reason not to believe he was all the things he told you he was,” he said.

Aguirre’s psychotherapist said in 2005 that he suffered from a “fear of failure” and feelings of “grandiosity.” He said Aguirre needed professional help, not prison time to improve.

Kallman doesn’t disagree, saying prison will only give Aguirre time to “develop his new strategy.”

Prosecutors said Aguirre wrote this fake press release as part of his pen scam in 2005. (Federal court case)

Aguirre cut a deal with prosecutors last year for no more than 30 months in exchange for his guilty plea on a single count of mail fraud. He could have faced up to 20 years in prison. Aguirre initially faced four counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud in the 2016 indictment.

Fitzwater, the judge, also ordered Aguirre to pay $11,675 in restitution.

“I have lived most of my life in very turbulent waters,” Aguirre told Fitzwater in court on Friday, adding tearfully that he will continue undergoing therapy for the rest of his life. He said he’s been “lost in a dark world” the past few years.

Finn had asked Fitzwater for a lesser sentence like home confinement, saying Aguirre was “fine” when he’s taking his medications for mental illness.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Yanowitch acknowledged Aguirre’s problems stemming from “childhood trauma” but said Aguirre has a history of not taking his meds. Prison time is needed for deterrence, he said, because “nothing seems to work.”

Aguirre, who has already spent about six years in federal prisons, motioned to his wife and forced a smile as he was led away.