HUGE FRENCH FRAUD.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1153, 14 June 1911, Page 7

HUGE FRENCH FRAUD.

ALLEGED THEFT OF £200,000. By TelcEraph—Press Association—Cony rich! (Ttcc. June 13, 11.5 p.m.) Paris, Juuc 13. The trial of M. Duez, formerly liquidator of the funds of flic French religious orders, has begun. JI. Duez is charged with the embezzlement of i£200,000 of the money received from tho liquidation. The jury will have to answer no fewer than 4300 questions. Due?., on being examined, repudiated the confession he had made when first arrested. He admitted frauds to the extent of only =£55,'1?<0. EXTRAORDINARY CONDITION OF AFFAIRS. The arrest, in March, 1910, o£ AT. Duez, wlio until the previous j;ear had been one of tho principal liquidators of the property of tho religious orders, created a profound sensation in France. The scandal had been ripening for some time. The commission which the Senate appointed in 1907 to inquire into the liquidation of the property of the congregations soon arrived at tho conviction that grave irregularities were taking place, although it ivas at first supposed that they were mainly concerned with excessive charges for the expenses of the liquidation. Thus the expenses of M. Duez were understood to have been returned at something like .£200,000. JI. Ducz sent in his resignation on grounds of health, and two successors, M. Jacques Pelegrin and' 11. Desbleumortiers, were appointed. The two successors of M. Duez soon discovered that a sum of £80,000 received from the sale of the Stanislaus Collego had simply "evaporated." 31. Duez himself finally requested an interview with the liquidators, and saidi I have deceived you. When I asked for time it was not to put my accounts in order. I knew that I could not find tho money to balance them. It was in order to consult my friends as to what I ought to do. They advised me to tell you the whole truth. I speculated on the Bourse and had heavy losses. You havo discovered £24,000 of misappropriations of private property. Tho amount is really ,£40,000. M. Lemarquis: "Did you tell the truth as to the property of the religious orders at least?"

M. Duoz: "No. The balance against me in that business is .£100,000." M. Lcmarquis promptly intimated that he must at onco inform tho judicial authorities, M. Duez replied: "Then I must shoot myself.'" But M. Lcmarquis reminded him" that he owed it to public justice to give himself up. Tho previous carcer of M. Duez (says "Tho Times") throws a strange light upon tho selection of tho liquidators of so vast a confiscated property as that of the religious orders, which amounted in value, according to M. Waldeck-Rous-seau's estimato in tho year 1!)00, to tho sum of JM0,000,000. M. Duez, who had to deal with Iho property of 13 of these orders, was formerly employed at the J3on Marehe, a Paris department store. Ho left that establishment in order to become a clerk in tho ofiico of a judicial administrator, a M. Humbert, where ho worked for a good many years. 51. Humbert then obtained for him from the then president of tho Civil Tribunal of Seine admission as a member of tho body of judicial administrators. It appears that these judicial administrators or

'nuidatora are not properly speaking officials of the State, but simply persons to whom the Civil Tribunal entrusts business as their services are required.