GIGANTIC FRAUDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8986, 17 September 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

GIGANTIC FRAUDS.

AN UNSCRUPULOUS WOMAN OB- j - TAINS LARGE SUMS.

Madame tApfaruti, who absconded from Paris after perpetrating a series of most ingenious frauds for large sums of money, has been arrested in St. Petersburg. A request for her extradition has been addressed to the Russian Government. Madame Apparuti was formerly directress of an important Paris fashion journal, Lo Conseiller des Dames des Demoiselles, of which the luxuriously fitted-up offices were at No. 7, Rue da Lille. She there played the part of a great lady, living on a large scale, and never having less than five domestics in her service. TUB FOUNDATION ON WHICH THE FRAUDS WEKE BASED. Last December Madame Apparuti exhibited in the editorial room of her paper a magnificent Court mantle, which, said she, had been made for the Empress of Russia. The exhibition room had been marvellously decorated in red velvet and gold, and the price of the mantle, according to Madame Apparuti, was £6000. Special invitation cards to see it were issued to the press, to society women, and to all the celebrities of financial circles, etc., and from morning to night, during the three days of the exhibition, the offices of Le Conseillerdes Dames were filled with persons belonging to the highest classes of society. Madame Apparuti had passed several years in Russia, and appeared to know the names of all the Czarina's ladies of honour, and to be perfectly acquainted with the Court. She al-> pretended to be certain of securing their custom, which was to bring her very large profits. In this way she "laid the basis of her gigantic frauds. She soon gave herself out as the only official dressmaker to the Russian Court, and then caused an accomplice to send her telegrams from St. Petersburg, purporting to come from Court ladies, ordering splendid evening toilettes, mantles, etc., etc. When in possession of a certain number of telegrams she applied to simpleminded persons, either her customers or subscribers to her paper, for funds to carry out her enterprises. In less than two months Madame Apparuti succeeded in getting out of her dupes the enormous sum of over £100,000 ; all the richer persons of her native locality—the Cote d'Or—supplied her with capital, and she even got upwards of £2000 from the mother of her chief employe. Her own mother, Madame Bernard, she has completely ruined. Besides the Russian Court she pretended to have a great many friends at the Court of Denmark ; she spoke of King Christian, father-in-law of Alexander 111., as an intimate friend, and talked of having ordered a set ..of jewels, costing £1500, from a well-known Parisian jeweller, as a present for the Queen of Denmark on the occasion of her golden wedding. On March 12 last Madame Apparuti suddenly left Paris for St. Petersburg on the pretext of collecting personally the money due for the orders sent her by the Russian ladies of honour, and by the Empress herself. From that time forward no news reached Paris from the clever adventuress. Her creditors, among whom were an advocate, a solicitor, a notary, an ex-judge of the civil tribunal of Beaune, and several large manufacturers, formed a syndicate. The person left in charge by Madame Apparuti was sent to St. Petersburg, where he learned that she certainly was in that city, but that she was completely unknown at the Court, neither the Czurina nor any of her ladies of honour having ever ordered anything from her. The famous mantle exhibited in the Rue de Lille was found to be merely a piece of theatrical property scarcely worth £100. In view of these facts a dozen or so of persons lodged a collective complaint against her.