SUGAR TRUST FRAUDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14757, 14 February 1910, Page 5

SUGAR TRUST FRAUDS

COMPANY FORCED TO PAY, £700,000 CLAIMED. Press Association—By Telegraph— Copyright. XEW YORK, February 11. The National Sugar Refining Company has'paid £120,800, making a total of £700,000, in settlement ■ of the duties claimeu on umveighed imports. The New York correspondent of the Daily Mail, writing early in December, stated :— "The trial of tno six employees of the Sugar Trust on charges of defrauding tho Government of Customs dues opened with a startling address by the Publio Prosecutor, Mr W. T. Denison. He stated that ho intended to prove that the Administration had been cheated on every cargo of sugar imported by the trust since its' formation. Mr Denison, who had tho scales of tho Customs brought into court, described how a ' roly-poly gang,' hidden in a dark shed, pullgl wires attached .to the scales whenever the checkers registered the weight of a bag of sugar. The prosecutor added that as soon as any employe© of the Customs discovered the .fraud tho trust seemingly had sufficient influence to secure his prompt removal from tho service;" ' A messago • from Washington to tho Chicago Tribune said that tho Government was ; firmly determined to cleanse tho Customs, not only at Now York but at all other ports, from all corrupt elements. Tho cheating that has been allowed for years to flourish has, the Tribune correspondent declares, been "simply stupendous." One of the most eagerly-discussed charactcrs'in America, to-day is Mr Robert Parr, a Treasury offioinl, who is known.as the "Nemesis of the Sugar Trust." Under the statutes regulating the nwards to be made to Customs officers and other persons who dutcct and seize goods in the act of being smuggled, Mr Parr is claiming £200,000 reward-50 per cent, of the i£400,000 recovered by the Government from tho Sugar Trust as tho result of his investigations, Mr Loob, collector of tho port of New York, has endorsed Mr Parr's claim, the granting which now rests in the discretion of ihe head of the Treasury Department. It is now several years sinob Mr, Parr, then a subordinate Customs omployec, furnished Mr Roosevelt with a dramatic account of the vast frauds perpetrated by tho Sugar Trust. Mr Roosevelt instructed him to devote his whole energies to gathering evidence sufficient to convict the " big scoundrels" or " tho men higher up." .•

When Mr Roosevelt left the Presidential' oliaii' he secured, the appopintment of Mr I<oeb, his private secretary, as collector of the port, of New York, believing that he was a man of iron will, fully capable of bringing the Custom's defrauders to justice.

The story of Mr Parr's investigations before and after Mr Loob's regime reads more lilts a- first-class. detective romance than ik chapter of real life, He fought the hostile influence of agents in the Customs service as well as of outsiders, and only succeeded in seizing falsified weighing roaohinos by means of an audacious ruse. Since then he has been subjected to amazing temptations. As much as £25,000 has been offered him by friends, "if only ho would consent to disappear." Insidious temptations were placed in his path. Beautiful women sought his friend ship and detectives daunted his footsteps. He has been repeatedly denounced to the authovitiesas a spendthrift and as a man of gross, life. Ir every instance ho has proved his innocence. Now ho is being inundated with threatening letters menacing him with death, Recently the Government offered him a bodyguard, but he refused. 1

So far only a few minor officials have been convicted of participation in the frauds, by which the Government was doprived of millions. Thc'latesJ; to be indicted is Mr Gerbracht, a former superintendent of tho Havemeyer-Elder Refinery at Williamsburg. Mr Gerbracht received a salary of £4000 a year. . He has entered a plea of " Not guilty." ' '. '