BANK FORGERS.

Evening Star, Issue 14053, 7 May 1909, Page 9

BANK FORGERS.

INTERNATIONAL GANG BROKEN UP.

Four, ringleaders of an international gang of engravers and, forgers of cheques anu bank notes, operating chiefly in' London and New York, have jnst been cleverly arrested by the .Milan detectives, says the ‘ Daily Chronicle's ’ correspondent. Their capture is duo to the misgivings of Signor Polotti, a very skilful lithographer of this city, whom the forgers had entrusted with the engraving of an immense numbei of cheques, varyihg in value from lOdol to ,200dol apiece, which they represented were required by the American Express Company for its branch establishments, in Rome, Naples, and Genoa. Signor Polotti confided the affair to tho police, who bade him proceed quietly with the commission, while thev prepareu a surprise for as many as possible of .the clique, which during the past couple of years has given untold trouble in England, America, France, and Belgium. Here in Italy last- December, after a series of frauds at Genoa, amounting to £12,C00, they presented a letter ■of credit of the Commercial Bank of' Milan for £3,CCO on Richard’s Bank, New York. The culprits have again and again exploited the Richard firm, and the Milan police are convinced from a mass of documents and stamps now seized at their lodgings that this criminal gang must have had one or more accomplices in the employ of the bank itself.

> tour members of the gang were caught red-handed. They are all middle-aged, well-dressed men of Italian origin, though a considerable part of their career has been spent in the United States and Great Britain. They had in their possession newly-fabricated notes and cheques of the total value of £480,000, which thev were about to forward to confederates in New York and London for circulation. The names of the accused arc Orfoo Origoni, a Neapolitan, Francesco Follina, of Palermo, Riccaxdo Amisani, of Cairo, and Andrea Fumo, of Genoa.

Origoni, formerly' an artillery officer, who comes from a well-known Naples family, is nephew of the famous General Matteraasi. He has been n consular agent and representative of various commercial concerns in Japan and North America. His criminal aliases are Albert Sullivan. Albert D’Oucien, Mr .Harney, and Frank Ogle. FollLna assumed tho "names of Mr Re Her, Frank Melton, and Charles Remo, and carried on his, professional duties mostly in London, while Amisani stayed in Paris as Louis Jean, and sometimes as Bepson and Spencer. The Milan authorities are elated at the brilliant capture, but regret that the majority of the gang are_ still at large, though they have clues which may prove useful to. the London and Paris police.