BELGIAN FRAUDS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12260, 10 June 1914, Page 5

BELGIAN FRAUDS.

WHOLESALE FORGERY. [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.] (Per Press Association.) Received June 9,. at 11.5 p ; m. Brussels, June 9. The trial of Wilmort has begun, and is expected to last several weeks. Fourteen leading counsel appear for accused: Sixty-one thousand forged bonds were traced, whereon Wilmort and his confederates borrowed twenty million francs. Accused hoped to make restitution out of the profits of the.'sale, of the Terneuzen railway to the Go-; yernment.

After a. five months' search, Nestor Wilmairt, the Belgian financier, whose mysterious disappearance from his customary haunts caused much comment in Paris and Brussels in October, 1913, was arrested on March 11 at Rlieims. Various estimates, ranging from £BO,OOO to £4,000,000, have, been "given of the alleged fraudi', said to have been carried on over a dozen' years by Wilmairt. The alleged frauds, relate to the share certificates' of the Ghent-Teraieu-zen Railway, of which Witaairt was the managing director. Nearly all the Brussels banks were involved, so to the extent of £40,000, and the affair brought widespread ruin in Belgium. One stockbroker, who " lost £28,C00, committed] suicide. Wilmart disappeared the day before the. warrairt for his a,r,rest was issued, and the authorities received a telegram announcing that he intended to commit suicide. Wilmart- possessed three country houses, where 'he gave elaborate fetes. He also kept a. large .racing stable.