SAMUEL INSULL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21638, 2 November 1933, Page 9

SAMUEL INSULL

ATHENS COURT'S VERDICT NO FRAUDULENT INTENTION (Received November 1. 6.5 p.m.) ATHENS, Oct. 31 rhe trial was con eluded to-day of Samuel lnsull, formerly a United States business magnate, who was arrested on August 26 at the request of the American Government. The Court decided that although lnsull possibly had violated the letter of the law it was without fraudulent intentions. Furthermore; lnsull, using his good name and his personal guarantee had done everything he could to maintain the credit of his company. Moreover, after his bankruptcy lie had remained in America and surrendered his wife's fortune. The Court's decision was received with loud applause.

The arrest of Samuel lnsull was io pursuance of the desire of the United States Government to have him deported from Greece and returned to America in connection with the . collapse of his company and its subsidiaries in April, 1932. The Court's, decision means that no deportation order will be made. There is no treaty of extradition between the two countries. Iu recent American history there is no parallel for the rise and fall of Samuel lnsull, who began life in London, his birthplace, as a junior clerk, at five shillings a week, at the age of 14, and became the greatest one-man corporation controller in the United States, lnsull in 1892 began to devise plans to secure a monopoly of electric utilities iu Chicago and the Middle West. By 1907 he had linked up the electric services of 40 towns, north and north-west of Chicago, in the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois. The company prospered, and, in 1932. he formed the Middle West Utilities Company, whose consolidated assets were stated at £250,000,000.

In October, 1929, Insull defied the stock crash in the United States and went on buying stocks, through his trusts. He went to President Hoover and assured him he would not shorten sail, but would operate all his companies at full capacity, for the good of the nation. The crisis cams in April, 1932, when Middle West Utilities went into receivership through inability to meet a. sum of about £1.200,000, duo in June. Next day, Insull s second investment company followed. On June 6, a Federal Judge ordered his removal from control. The following; day he resigned from oG corporations and sailed for Europe.