PROMOTER SENT TO GAOL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17009, 16 April 1926, Page 9

PROMOTER SENT TO GAOL.

SEQUEL TO CALIFORNIA FRAUDS. MANY MUST FACE POVERTY. SAN FRANCISCO, March 6. Abner Doble, who obtained £400.000 from investors on bis promise to revolutionise the automobile industry with a steam-propelled ear, was sentenced today to Sail Quentin penitentiary for from one to five years, for violating the California “Blue Skv’’ Law. Harold E. Haven, F. G. Cox and W. E. Bernard, associated with Doble in the sale of stock in the Doble Motors Corporation, were sentenced to pay £IOOO fine each or serve 500 days in the county gaol. “This is no case for probation,” Judge Michael J. Roche said. “The people of California have lost £360,000. The men responsible for this loss are men of intelligence and experience. Three are sons of millionaires, reared in the best possible environment, and with college educations. “Many of the people who invested money in the Doble Corporation will face poverty for years unless some means is found for making restitution.” Leniency for Haven, Cox and Bernard was granted when the Court advised the three had pleaded guilty, and offered to aid in every way possible in making up for investors’ losses. The courtroom was crowded with stockholders and relatives of the defendants. Charles N. Douglas, representing 500 stockholders, said he had attached the Doble plant, but he doubted if its sale at public auction would give more than a few cents on the dollar’.