MAN OF MYSTERY

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4372, 5 July 1938, Page 7

MAN OF MYSTERY

GAMBLED DESPERATELY At the gambling tables of Ostend and he Toquet, where Maurice Fridjhon, 46-year-old London merchant, was negotiating a £50.000 arms deal with agents of the Spanish Government, croupiers knew him as a steady loser. But they did not know that the quiet, grey-haired man of mystery, who came and went without disclosing his business to any casino acquaintance, owed £26,000, and was desperately staking money which should have been paid to his English creditors. Some time later Maurice Fridjhon, arrested in the Bankruptcy Court, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to obtaining credit of £384 without disclosing that he was an undischarged bankrupt, and to leaving England with money which should have been divided among his creditors. The common sergeant, Mr Cecil Whiteley, K.C., sentenced Fridjhon to two years’ imprisonment. Fridjhon asked that 43 additional charges of obtaining credit should be taken into consideration.

A detective sergeant told the judge that Fridjhon had three previous convictions, the last six months previously, when, in Birmingham, he was sentenced to six months’ hard labour for obtaining money by false pretences. He added that Fridjhon had revealed that since 1936 he had been purchasing munitions for the Spanish Government, which resulted in a £6,000 profit, of which his share was £3,000. He put his share of this money into a further operation which resulted in a profit of

£300,000, but owing to certain difficulties the profit had not been paid. His share now, he had also stated, would he £BO,OOO, but owing to the cost of bribery and commission it would be £40,000. He would pay his creditors with this money.