HEAVY DAMAGES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13509, 26 August 1907, Page 3

HEAVY DAMAGES.

A COMPANY PROMOTER SUED.

In the London law courts on June 10, as indicated by cable at the time, Mr Justice Channell entered judgment for £827,000 against Frank Lacroix Gardner; gold-mining millionaire and company promoter, and he was ordered to pay that amount to Senora Conccpcion Benitez de Beistegui, a Spanish lady. Sir Edward Carson, who appeared for the plaintiff, said the grounds of the action were that a conspiracy had been entered into between her secretary, Mr Soberano, and Mr Gardner. "The transactions," he continued, "began in 1895 and continued down to 1903, when the lady became suspicious, and ascertained that this was really a swindle between these two men. Between those dates she advanced to Mr Gardner money to the amount of £225,359 9s 6d, as appears from his own books, and she also gave him securities on which he raised money, which, according to himself in his books, realised £577,078 ss. In reality they realised more, because one of the ways in which he procured money was to credit in his books and in the accounts he sent to her a lesser sum than he actually received as purchase money on various securities she sent him. In addition to that, he received various dividends belonging to this lady and profits in stocks, bringing the full sum that he had received up to £983,758. For this money Madame Beistegnui in the result received 'nothing." FURTHER DETAILS. Senora de Beistegui was staying in London at the time, and her chaplain gave further details concerning the case to an Express representative. "She is a very wealthy lady, over seventy years of age," he said, "and is well known in society in Paris . She has a house in the Avenue des ChampsEly sees, and before this affair began she possessed over a million pounds. Her husband's father was interested in Mexican mines, and left a large fortune, which his son, who was also a financier, was able to increase. Her husband died in 1890. Shortly after this date, Soberano was introduced to her by a friend. He was in poor circumstances, and the Senora took pity on him arid employed him as her secretary, at a salary of £480 a year. She had implicit faith in him, and entrusted him with her letters and all her affairs. She did not check anything. It was he who introduced Mr Gardner to her. Mr Gardner, he said, was a man of unimpeachable position, who had a palatial office in London and another in Paris. His integrity, he added, was beyond question, and he was the friend of many distinguished men. They inform us that to have the judgment put in force in France we should have to pay dues and costs amounting to £25,000 to the French Government. The Senora has not yet decided whether to take this step, and it is doubtful whether it would be worth while." DEFENDANT'S CAREER. , Mr Frank Gardner has, according to the paper above quoted, had a romantic career. He was born in one of the Southern States of America. When the War of Secession broke out he returned from school to find his home burned to the ground and his parents dead.* He enlisted in the Confederate Army as a drummer boy, and before he was fourteen he had been present in forty engagements. After the war he tramped hundreds of miles to Philadelphia, where he was adopted by a medical man who had b^en a friend of his family. At the age of nineteen he secured a position in a San Francisco bank, and from that time his career as a financier dates. Successful speculations quickly brought him in £75,000, but he gambled with the money and lost it all. He then visited Australia and. after some years of ill-luck, solE a gold-mining claim for £6,000 and bepame'a mining magnate. He left Australia to juggle with millions in London and Paris. His princely home in the Avenue dv Bois de Boulogne has been a social centre, and he was formerly prominent on the turf, both in England and France.