MILLIONAIRE’S SAFES

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10508, 11 February 1928, Page 6

MILLIONAIRE’S SAFES

A or: ANTIC Kit A l'I). PAPER I'OK GOLD. BONDS FOP 30.0U0.CW FRANCS, Inquiries 1y.u.10 by the Paris police at viie request 01 'the' Hungarian Aiiinsc-er, into a vast -affair in natal .a rniiigaiiau uoln li.nias, in_eoiUH>non wiill which tnreo important arrests Inive•'•been made in J'ans, promise to lead to sensational developments. . .

investigations are also being conducted by the ponce of Croat Jlvital n and Germany, to winch countries a gang of sv/muJers is reported to nine smuggled a considerable number of Itiinganan' bonds on winch’ Lite interest was to be piiid 'in paper crowns, and to -Jiavc .forged 'the. necessary stamps to turn them into bonds payable in gold crowns, in loreign countries. Four.safes,"which belonged to the Viennese, banker, Joseph Bniinenstein, now under arrest, was forced ripen recently by/the ponce, the prisoner having refused to hand mo keys to the investigating: magistrate.

Thirty million Danes'"worth of Hungarian debt bond's were discovered in them. Many of them were found to have been more or less grossly transferred into bonds, payable in gold crowns.

Tile banker Blumenstein, who was living in a luxurious Paris hotel with his wife and two children, is said to belong to a wealthy fain dy of Vienna bankers,. and to have a fortune or 15,000,000 dollars. Tie is 50 years of age. ‘

His two companions in custody (at first described as Rumanian and Italian) are really two Russian brothers named Simon and Boris Tovbini, born at Odessa. ; •

-While inspectors were searching Simon Tovbuii’s apartments the telephone bell rang. Simon was about to take the receiver when a detective stopped him, saying, "Ret me aiiswer that call.”

"is that, you Tovbini '■ This is Bluinenstein speaking,” said the voice in the 'phone. The inspector gave no reply, and hung up the receiver as if the communication had been accidentally interrupted. ... As Tovbini, replying to a-question from the inspector, said lie did not know who Blumenstein was.- the police official rang up the telephone exchange and found out 'that the mysterious caller had telephoned from a new and luxurious hotel in the Boulevard Hnussninnii.

• Ten ''minutes' later the inspector was at the hotel, and asked M. Blumenstein to ' accompany him to police headquarters—which lie left a few hours later for the prison depot.