IS KREUGER ALIVE?

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 July 1932, Page 12

IS KREUGER ALIVE?

A STARTLING STORY. Is Ivar Kreuger, the Swedish match king, dead or alive? If he is alive, whose body was it that was found shot through the heart in Kreuger’s Paris home? If he is dead, where are the millions of pounds of gold which he bought so feverishly in the weeks before he died? These problems are being considered now by criminologists in every country in the world, at the request of the Swedish authorities, according to a London paper. Every day the legend spreads that Kreuger still lives. Probably ’the real truth -will never be finally established. One. man might reveal it. That man was a strange, romantic figure, Kreuger’s closest associate in many of the strange sides of his life, and probably Kreuger’s most intimate friend. That man to-day is also missing. Since the tragedy he has not been found.

The facts surrounding Kreuger’s death are extremely strange, One question that none can answer is, “What became of this colossal swindler’s plunder?” Kreuger knew for some time that a long-deferred day of reckoning must come. People were asking awkward questions. He allayed their fears long enough to be able to turn large blocks of securities belonging to his companies into paper money. This in turn he exchanged for gbld, paying extravagant prices for it.

It was partly due .to the frantic efforts of his agents that the price of bullion soared as it did recently. Where are these .enormous gold purchases to-day? They did not reach his bankers. That is certain. Somewhere—possibly in safe deposits—this vast treasure may have □een snugly tucked away in various names. That is why diligent inquiries are on foot now among all the safe deposits of the world to try to discover whether Kreuger agents have visited them.

Many of these agents, like the gold, have vanished also. One in particular is being sought. All his known contacts right back to his boyhood days are being closely interrogated in the efforts to discover his whereabouts. There is a strong belief that wherever he is, Ivar Kreuger will not be far away.

The whole circumstances of Kreuger’s alleged suicide in Paris give rise —in view of many of the investigators —to the gravest doubts as to whether the dead body found in his apartment was really his. It is admitted that news of the tragedy was withheld from the public for hours. It is also a fact that the body was speedily cremated. Any doubts that may be raised now as to its identity must therefore remain unsatisfied.

The one person—Kreuger’s friend—who is most likely tp be able to know the truth behind these strange happenings is being sought throughout the world. He is in many ways as romantic a figure as Kreuger. He was much older than Kreuger, a fluent linguist, extraordinarily sharp, fearless, adventurous, and phenomenally strong. Eight people saw Kreuger’s body after his death —the concierge of the house; Miss Bokman, his private secretary; Mr Littorin, vice-president of the Swedish Match Company; the locksmith who forced the door; the doctor who was called in by the police; M. Manguad, the commissary of police; Kreuger’s maid; and the Swedish Con-sul-General.

Mr Littorin first communicated with Kreuger’s family in Sweden and with business colleagues all the .world. Then he informed the police. The news was kept entirely quiet; until the evening, although death musit have taken place about midday. There were three letters left, one for Mr Littorin, the contents of which have not been revealed, one for a friend in Sweden, Mr Schell, and one for his family. Miss Bokman emphatically denied that any of Kreuger’s relatives were coming to fetch the body. Kreuger’s body was embalmed there, placed in a coffin with a glass panel showing his face, and accompanied by Mr Littorin to Sweden, where it was cremated. Kreuger’s coffin was soldered in Paris, according to the French custom, and nobody saw the corpse in Stockholm, only the waxlike face through the small glass window, more than two inches thick, in the lid of the coffin.

In Paris the only one seeing Kreuger’s corpse—apart from the French physician, the French police, Kreuger’s right -hand man, Mr Littorin, vice-pre-sident of the concern, and Mr Kreuger’s private secretary—was the the Swedish Consul, Mr Forssius, who did not know Kreuger intimately, and had met him only two or three times officiaLy.

Representatives of the Swedish Legation were refused admittance to Avenger's home on Saturday and Sunday, and at last admitted on Monday morning, when the Consul saw the corpse in the coffin. When the coffin was burned in Stockholm several persons were said to have noticed a strong smell of wax. Wild rumours that it was a wax doll and not a dead body that was burned have been in circulation all over Sweden, and are still circulating. There have been letters from Moscow saying Kreuger lives there as an honoured guest, after his support with money of the Communist parties in Sweden and Germany.