MILLIONAIRES AS SMUGGLERS

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 191, 12 August 1911, Page 17

MILLIONAIRES AS SMUGGLERS

SEQUEL TO AMERICAN JEWEL ROBBERY. A prominent New York millionaire, whose name is withheld, but who is reported to be a leather magnate, has just been compelled to pay duty amounting to a quarter of a million dollars on jewellery of which his friend had been robbed. The jewels were purchased In Paris some time ago and presented by her admirer to a beautiful New York hostess. The Customs Inspection wns not so strict at the time they were brought to America, and the millionaire managed to avoid paying duty on his purchases. The lady to whom he gave them, how-ever, r€ported to the police that they had been stolen from her, and whilst investigating the Tobbery the authorities looked up the Customs Tecords to verify their value for insurance purposes. No tract jot their en-try could be found in the official books, and Collector Loeb called upon the millionaire importer to explain when the duty had been paid. No satisfactory explanation being forthcoming, a criminal prosecution was threatened, and the millionaire was compelled to pay the full value of the J«wels as fluty ana fines.

The lady from whom they had been stolen, on learning of the difficulties in which the robbery had placed her admirer, decided to "curt the loss" and told the police that the jewellery had not been stolen after all, but had been mislaid and since recovered. The police, however, were sceptical, and although the hunt for the lost jewels has been abandoned, the public prosecutor is considering the smuggling case, and the millionaire Is still Id danger of prosecution. A carefully organised conspiracy between Customs inspectors and wealthy Americans, by which jewels, Paris gowns, and even furniture to the value of several millions of dollars have been smuggled into the United S>tateß during the last two years, has been disclosed by the investigation into the case. The ramifications of this conspiracy are so extensive that the Customs officials decline to speak excepting in the vaguest terms. The prosecution of several millionaires for fraud will depend on the outcome of the inquiry.

The activity of the Government detectives was caused by the woman frieud of the Leather Trust millionaire, wno bad imported £50,000 worth of jewels for her. She made a confession throwing upon him tne onus of smuggling the jewels, and he in turn declared that he had learned the means by which it was possible to smuggle in valuables from a New York banker. Following on this information, the detectives discovered tmporuitlous oi enormous vnlue which had not paid n peany of duty to the Government. One woman confessed that she brought into the I'nlted States in June. 1000. a diamond necklace valued at £15,000, pearl earrings (£SOOOI, forty costlj gowns, 500 dozen pairs of French gloves. the entire shipment being worth £30.000. Her .trunks were not Inspected by the <'ustoms officials, who received bribes of £2O each not to examine them.