SHARE FRAUDS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18764, 31 December 1930, Page 9

SHARE FRAUDS.

MANY INVESTORS HOODWINKED. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright NEW YORK. December 29. The astonishing credulity of simple minded investors was again revealed when the police interfered in the activities of the Automobile and Royalties Corporation, and Clark Parker and his son, Wyman, were indicted for an extraordinary fraud in hoodwinking 700 aged couples and clergymen, and defrauding them of £200,000, which they invested in Parker’s rotary motor, which refused to motivate. Parker is a venerable high pressure promoter, and trustee of the “Church of the Stranger.” He associated with the late Dr Eugene Christian in the latter’s success in “putting over” vitamins. and with the famous health faddist’s mailing list. He assured his dupes that his automobile royalties would do for their purses what vitamins had done for their stomachs. The police found Parker’s sales wizardry and astounding. Dozens of Parker's victims were mulcted of thousands of dollars, not once, but on several occasions by their own testimony. But they write in his defence, and argue that he suffered because unscrupulous motor manufacturers withheld the royalties on his patented inven (ions.

The police regard Parker as the most prolific and persuasive letter writer in recent fraud history.