SYDNEY M.P. HELD ON CONSPIRACY CHARGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 193, 17 August 1939, Page 11

SYDNEY M.P. HELD ON CONSPIRACY CHARGE.

MISSING FINANCIER.

Solicitor And Traveller Also

In Custody.

WOOLCOTT FORBES SEQUELS.

Dnited Press Association.—copyright.

(Received 11.30 a.m.)

SYDNEY, this day.

The "Daily Telegraph" says that Mr. Ronald Bruce Walker, M.L.A., was arrested last night on a country train in connection with charges against the missing Woolcott Forbes.

Albert Levitus, solicitor, and Clive Oscar Airey, traveller, were also arrested late last night in Sydney charged with conspiring with Forbes.

It was said of Forbes that no more colourful personality had ever been associated with commerce and sport in Australia. Landing in Sydney as Louis Brandi he had a meteoric career from complete obscurity to a position of considerable imminence in the commercial world. He established the forerunner of the company which, it is alleged, he later defrauded. His turf operations, possibly the cause of his downfall, ran into thousands of pounds. He is credited with having won £13,000 on one horse, but also experienced very heavy losses. Forbes' unexpected departure was known only to a few of his most intimate friends, and his subsequent ar.est caused a sensation in Sydney.

Following cabled advice from the Sydney police Forbes was arrested upon his arrival at Bombay on January 1. He was charged with conspiracy to defraud the Producers' and General Finance Company and other persons of large sums of money, alnd was released on bail, pending the hearing of an application for an extradition order.

i'e made several appearances in the Bombay Court, and an extradition order was made on January 23. When the time came for it to be put into effect, however, the Public Prosecutor was compelled to announce that Forbes' whereabouts were unknown. In spite of widespread search he has not since been found, though some time after his disappearance a man was arrested in London on suspicion of being Forbes, but was later released. On the date of Forbes' arrest Douglas Jowett Bush was arrested in Brisbane as a fellow conspirator.