MAN WHO CLAIMED TO MAKE GOLD ARRESTED FOR £12,500 FRAUD

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6868, 25 March 1929, Page 2

MAN WHO CLAIMED TO MAKE GOLD ARRESTED FOR £12,500 FRAUD

POLICE BBEAK INTO CASTLE. A man who claimed to manufacture "gold bricks," once 1 a classic swindle, has been arrested with his wife in their castle' at Appiano, near Bolzano, Italy, for alleged fraud in Germany involving £125,000. Ho passed as Baron Tausend, hut was simply a tinsmith by profession, while his wife was a chambermaid. He obtained a diploma in chemistry at Zurich, and opened a small establishment*at Friberg. where he claimed, it is asserted, to have discovered the secret of making gold, and obtained money from numerous dupes. The man was so successful that he founded several branches 1 ' in different parts of Germany, and collected a considerable fortune, with part of which ho bought an old castle at Appiano, went about in a magnifient motor-car, posed as a Croesus, in Bolzano, and gavo great fashionable receptions. Tho couplo were, long suspected of espionage, no cluo being found to tho origin of their fortune. Tausend went on frequent visits to Germany to Collect money, and recently ho is reported to have obtained a large sum from s a wealthy widow and her son, who actually sold their family estate -kt Munich to invest it in. the alleged goldmaking process. Tausend escaped with the funds, and withdrew to his castle at Appiano, bpt subsequently his Tefuge was discovered by the German police. A demand for his arrest and extradition was presented. The police broko into the castle, arrested tho couple, and conveyed theff to prison at Bolzano.