SUEZ CANAL FRAUD

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 August 1934, Page 3

SUEZ CANAL FRAUD

ROUND-UP OF FORGERS PARIS, July 17. The discovery twelve months ago of forged Suez Canal shares to the value of about £160,000 has resulted in the round-up of an international gang responsible for forging of shares to the value of over £1,000,000. The unearthing of the gang has been one of the cleverest pieces of detective work carried out by the French police. Two Dutchmen who deposited some of the forged shares at a Paris bank were arrested. They maintained, however, that they had acted in good faith when receiving what they believed to be genuine shares from a Geneva banker. The missing clues were, however, supplied when the Paris bank directors sold on the Bourse forged Lens Mines shares for £25,000, and then fled. Later two business men from the south of France were arrested in Paris for holding forged Lens Mines shares for £lO,OOO. The Suez Canal and Lens cases were handed over to three separate examining magistrates, and it was only recently that the police found they were connected. A financier was arrested in. Barcelona. The reference of the arrested Dutchmen to a Geneva bank led to investigations in Switzerland. The Geneva banker bad fled. Two French detectives were sent to investigate in Italy. They discovered in Milan a secret press where all the forged shares were printed. It was found to belong to Felix Rafolo, already sentenced several times for fraud. Rafolo, who was arrested with four accomplices, admitted the Suez Canal, Lens and other forgeries.