BELGIAN RAILWAY FRAUDS.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13491, 10 June 1914, Page 5

BELGIAN RAILWAY FRAUDS.

WORTHLESS BONDS

THE WILMART CASE

(Received June 9, 11.5 p.m.)

Brussels, June 9

The trial of Wilmart, in connection with tho remarkable railway bond frauds in 1912, has begun, and is expected to occupy some weeks. Four- ] teen leading counsel appear for the ac'cuscd. ; t I Sixtyrone thousand forged bonds were traced, on which Wilmart and his confederates borrowed' twenty million francs. The accused hoped to make redress out of the profits of the sale of the Terneuzen railway to the. Government.

Wilmart, who was the managing director of the Ghent-Terneuzen railway forged bonds of the company's shares to the extent of several millions, and carried on his operations for fifteen years. That banks, stock-brokers, and the business world generally should have been so long deceived is amazing. The actual capital of the railway was only £185,000, and people are naturally wondering how it was that in the face of this, the enormous number of shares issued -did not attract attention years ago. Wilmart employed agents to sell this worthless scrip all over Holland and Belgium, and m parts of France. He contrived to issue new scrip as shares which had been already paid off many years before and to carry audacity still further, repeated the various numbers as often as he felt inclined. As the State had been trying in vain to buy the railway for some years, the purchasers in most cases quietly held these shares, tempted by the prospect of an eventual high prjce. Whenever shares came into the market Wilmart paid them off, and promptly issued more worthless paper. _ He had the scrip printed by many printers in Brussels, and signed by his brother, cousin, arid the managing director 01 the company, or by innocent and dummy directors. Then the worthless scrip was' duly stamped at the Ghent stamping office. This office accepted without question the large quantity of suchpaper that came in every, month from Wilmart, as they knew he was the only person who had it m his power to issue a* fresh loan. Exposure came by the merest accident. A Brussels stockbroker's clerk absconded with fifty .-of these railway shares, and his employer furnished a list of the shares to the police. A magistrate examined the list and found that several shares had duplicate numbers, and inquiries were pushed so far that Wilmart fled the country.