SWINDLING CASE DISCLOSURES

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 25

SWINDLING CASE DISCLOSURES

Remarkable disclosures with regard to the operations.of the gang of international) swindlers, some members of which are now under arrest in Paris, have been made to the "Daily Mail." They come from a former member of the gang, an Irishman, now in London. Himself an ex-convict, he makes no secret of his association with the gang and the part he. played in its operations. In the company of a man who a few years ago was acquitted of a murder charge in Englarfß, this Irishman talked freely about his late associates and airily referred to death in the electric chair which awaited one.of them if he ever returned to the United States. "The Paris 'cops,'" he went on, "have certainly made a big haul, for they, have got a man who to my certain knowledge has stolen at least £250,000 from various people during the last few. years.' "I know t that that sum sounds fantastic, but it's true. >' '.: "He started- this wholesale robbery in 1923 v with a coup of £45,000 from an Australian" squatter. Then he got £36,000 from a man • from the . West Indies, and he has had three or four sums of £10,000 or more from people in England, to say riothing of similar coups in other countries; .: . • "He is a genius at the game. He invented what we 'con.' men call the 'pay off.' It concerns the persuasion of likely 'cans' to become interested in stock and share deals on a mythical exchange, and is worked by a chief who is,known in our language as 'the player,' who has the assistance of two or three 'steers,' as the men are called "who find likely, victims for him. "Jake,' we will call him, was always 'the player,': and I was one of his. 'steersl' It was while acting in this capacity for him that I got a lucky six months' imprisonment-at Margate. I had picked up a likely 'can''for him— a very rich Fipri. ' • • ''I found him at the Zoo, and by the usual methods got into conversation with him and then planted a wallet containing a real £100 note, a member's badge for the exchange, and various, other documents, including newspaper cuttings telling about a mysterious Stock Exchange operator who had been making huge sums and giving his photograph. ■ "There were also letters to a Mr. Blank, addressed to a London hotel, purporting to be from a powerful commercial firm in New York, complaining about. the publicity he had been getting in his Stock deals. "All the papers are faked, including the newspaper cuttings, which are specially printed for us by a printer we know. We have to pay very heavily for these 'cuttings,' as the boss has to do them himself after his men have left off work. The 'steer' arranges that the 'can' finds the wallet and gets into communication with the owner, and then 'the player' takes a hand. "Jake," for the purposes of the 'pay off,' used to take .a suite of rooms at ,an. exclusive hotel for two or throe

days and it was there we" used' to get the 'can' interested. Out of gratitude for the return of his wallet and documents the 'player' consents to let the 'can' and the 'steer' who is handling him in on a big trade on the exchange, but insists, so. that his principals shall not know, that.the transaction be carried out in the name of the .'steer.* «- "This is done and a huge profit is made, but the officials of the exchange, who are, of course, . 'Jake's' men, suddenly interfere and agree: that while the trade has been carried through they have no knowledge of the person who has carried it out and if the trade had gone the other way they would have lost, say, £30,000. "Can it be shown that if the man had lost he would have been able to pay? If he can, all well and good; his huge profit of £150,000 will be paid over. "Then, although both the 'steer" and the 'player' give evidence that they have plenty of funds, they are all unaccountably tied up and are not immediately available. Then it is that the assistance of the 'can' is asked, care having first been taken to ascertain that he has got the money. In nine cases out of ten he puts up the money and that's the end of the matter; he never sees it again. "'Jake' has worked this trick over and over again and has got away with it. "It.was when we were trying to do the Finn I have mentioned for £30,000 that Scotland Yard got after us and I was arrested at Margate and given six months, much to the astonishment of the 'can,' who thought I was a very fine fellow. \- . ' ;".•..-.''.-' "I got to the Continent and later arrived in St. Moritz with some pals. We were quite happy there following our own devices :on the level, but. there was a well-known London public main who would butt in on.us. He became such a nuisance that we decided to trim him. ■ ■■•.■• ■ ; "He wanted to play chemin-de-f er, and we obliged him, switching the game to what is known as 'Split Ace.' We allowed him to win for a little and I paid over to him £150 in 'ready' and a cheque for £100, which he promptly cashed in, the hotel in which we were staying. ■ "Then we went for him and finished by holding his cheque for £6800. "On his way back to England he saw something in the papers about one of my pals and he stopped his cheques and so we got nothing. It was some time after that that the police got on my track and I was arrested. "Prosecuting counsel at the Old Bailey told of how we had trimmed this public man in St. Moritz, and the Judge in sentencing me to 18 months rubbed it in about my shocking conduct while a fugitive from justice. "The 'cans' are always greedy fellows anxious to make something for nothing; and if I thought that I could not still make, money in a big way by the old means I would wash cars for ft living."