A ROGUES GALLERY

Press, 16 June 1978, Page 13

A ROGUES GALLERY

Of the 30 people arrested in the raids of August 13, 1976, 16 eventually came to trial. Many were dealt with in the lower courts, some were found innocent — like Mr Billy Ambrose, the Soho bookmaker whom the Crown alleged was the “protector and collector” for the so-called Hungarian Circle. But the main figures in the Old Bailey trial were:

HENRY OBERLANDER (51), senior member of the Circle, of Notting Hill. Born in Czechoslovakia, he was machinegunned with others from his village by Nazi concen-tration-camp guards, but managed to escape with a leg wound after lying all night in a mass grave. Evidence was given by people he had helped that he was an agent of Bricha, the Jewish escape organisation running first out of Nazi, then out of Soviet-occupied Europe. Admitted to police that he changed passports “as often as I change shirts.” Claimed to have taken part in the Israeli Secret Service capture of Eichmann and the still-continuing hunt for Dr Mengele, the notorious Auschwitz doctor. Found guilty of plotting to defraud banks by using forged drafts and plotting to use false passports to evade the Immigration Act. Convicted in his absence during the Old Bailey trial to six years in the Persian Gulf for passing forged drafts. FRANCISCO FIOCCA (51). believed to be Argentinian, the organisation’s master forger and, with Oberlander, the most important criminal caught by the Serious Crime Squad. Found guilty on both counts. Ten offences in Italy of theft, assault, and conspiracy. JORGE GRUNFELD (55), a naturalised Argentinian, who began work as a mechanic in Rumania, went to Hungary,

and emigrated to Argentina. He was the front man — the buyer of the straight bank drafts from which the forged "drafts were copied.

ANDRE BIRO (52). described by Oberlandci to the police as Fiocca’s controller. The Circle’s quartermasiei Born in Brazil, but taken as a small boy to Hungary, wanted for cheque frauds in Germany, Tehran, . Hong Kyiig, Singapore, Bahrein, and Mexico. Pleaded guilty to both charges during the trial. EMIL FLEISCHMANN (57). Stateless. Born in Hungarx. Escaped before the war, joined French Foreign Legion, escaped from France during the German occupation. Joined Free French in Britain, then deserted — served three years for that. Since convicted of seven criminal offences abroad. Pleaded guilty. LOUIS de SAUMAREZ TUFNELL (69). Old Etonian and former All-England squash rackets player. He was sen! fenced to three years in prison before the main trial started after admitting plotting to pass forged bank drafts. A bankrupt businessman, he acted in belter times as financial adviser to Lord Camrose, owner of the "Daily Telegraph," and Lord Thomson, owner of “The Times.”

CARL ALBERT LAMPERTZ (57). Also sentemed tn thiee vears after admitting that he acted as an agent for the Circle and passed forged drafts. Lampertz, a German who has served several prison terms in his home country, was a tank commander on the Eastern Front during the last war. Wounded, he went back to Germany, joined th* Luftwaffe as a bomber pilot, and was shot down.