FRAUDS AND ROBBERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 1 March 1921, Page 17

FRAUDS AND ROBBERIES.

PARIS, February 19. A smart impostor, whose name is Fiorian styling himself Don Andre de Farmas, and posing as a nephew of the Spanish Ambassador, was employed by the Ameri can Society for the Protection of Emigrants. He was entrusted with 300,000 francs to buy tickets for Jewish emigrants. He palmed off bogus tickets, and flew with the spoils in an aeroplane to Berlin, where he hoaxed a jeweller, securing 500,000 francs’ worth of diamonds, and again flew off. He was later arrested at Hamburg. February 22. The adventures of a unique deep blue sapphire, weighing 291 carats, are occupying the attention of the French police. It is an heirloom in the Polish family of Count Xavier Branicki. The Count carried it on bis person when Warsaw was occupied in July, 1918, until a pickpocket stole the gem, which seemed wholly lost. The French police traced it to a dealer named Feurchwanger, who bought it for 185,000 francs from a Lithuanian dealer, recognising it as a stone which had been exhibited at the International Exhibition. Feurchwanger decided to cut it into nine stones, hoping to evade recognition, and the weight was, reduced to 145 carats. The police have now arrested Feurchwanger and six others, including the Lithuanian dealer and two stone cutters. LONDON, February 23. Air George Marple, of Sheffield, was awarded £12,500 as damages owing to fraudulent representations by a man named E. T. Holley in connection with the sale of the Jubilee Cotton Mill during the recent boom. Mr Justice Russell, in a scathing judgment, describes Holley and his associates as financial pickpockets <jf the worst kind, and ordered that the documents be impounded to enable the authorities to de termine whether it was possible to punish them. The evidence showed that Holley and his co-directors arranged that a fictitious dividend of 33 per cent, should be paid out of capital, in order to foist the Jubilee shares upon an unsuspecting public. NEW YORK, February 25. According to a message from Fast Quincey, Illinois, four armed bandits held up the Chicago-Alton express, uncoupled the mail car, and rifled it of 125,000d01. In view of the frequency and success of mail robberies, the postal authorities are of opinion that there is a master mind, with an intimate knowledge of post office workings, directing the robbers. WASHINGTON, February 25. A later report states that a Post Office investigation shows that the bandits who held up the Chicago express got only 10 dollars. The packages containing the 125,000d0l had been transferred to another train. NEW YORK, February 26. William Dalton, a clerk employed by the Northern Trust Company of Chicago, absconded with £140,000 worth of negotiable securities. The company has offered £SOOO as a reward for his capture.