STAVISKY FRAUDS

Southland Times, Issue 22732, 7 November 1935, Page 5

STAVISKY FRAUDS

WIDOW ON TRIAL ALLEGED COMPLICITY IN SWINDLES 270 WITNESSES (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) Paris, November 5. Clad in deep black, Madame Stavisky, slightly disdainful, faced the Judge in the Seine Assizes charged with receiving part of the proceeds of her dead husband’s alleged £7,000,000 swindles. Twenty of Stavisky’s associates were all charged with participating in the frauds. Wild scenes occurred in the courtroom, which was crowded by 50 defending counsel, 270 witnesses and Republican Guards. When Judge Barnaud asked if the defending counsel were comfortable there was ,a noisy demand for chairs. In confusion Judge Barnaud suspended the session and retired, while chairs were thrown across the room and lawyers danced excitedly. Witnesses, prisoners, newspapermen and . spectators leapt from their seats and joined in the laughing and shouting. Madame Stavisky, who is already confident of acquittal, is making plans to go on the stage. It is expected that the duration of the trial will exceed a month. “Hie shadow of Stavisky s corpse will dominate the trial,” said Judge Bernaud in summarizing Stavisky s frauds at the opening of the trial. The trial is the climax of 20 months investigation of one of the biggest modern frauds. The reading of the indictment occupied two hours despite the omission of 1956 questions which are being submitted to the jury. Two hundred and seventy witnesses have been summoned, including M. Daladier and M. Chautemps, former Prime Ministers, and also M. Chiappe, former Chief of Police.

Arlette Stavisky, fashionably dressed in mourning and ’in the latest style, originally faced the Court calmly, but she crouched on a wooden bench weeping and shaken by sobs, being comforted by counsel’s arm about her shoulders as Judge Bernaud mercilessly traced Stavisky’s career from the time of starting a night club with an elderly woman whose jewels he stole to the Bayonne swindles and his ultimate suicide. He declared that- Stavisky was a glamorous swindler and a crooked megalomaniac who cheated from a love of ostentation and luxury. He possessed a personality sufficient to involve prominent people, his machinations resulting in the dock being filled with once respected • editors and politicians. Judge Bernaud then began questioning the accused, which he said would occupy a week.