BANK INDICTED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22790, 14 January 1944, Page 5

BANK INDICTED

Alleged Breach Of Enemy Trade Act (Rec. 7.59) WASHINGTON. Jan. 12. A Federal Grand Jury indicted the Chase National Bank and Leonard J. A. Smit, a diamond dealer, with conspiracy and engaging in the illegal sale for export of industrial diamonds, thus violating the Trade with the Enemy Act. The Attorney-General, Mr Frances H. Biddle, said Smit established Elsantum (Inc.) in Panama as a nonAmerican front for the sale of diamonds which reached Germany and Japan. The Chase National Bank was accused of aiding these operations by carrying on regular banking and credit transactions with the Smit firms. Mr Biddle described the indictments as the most significant application of the Trading with the Enemy Act to date. The immediate result will be the shutting off of one of the worst leaks of strategic industrial materials from America to the enemy. “A Senseless Outrage” The chairman of the board of directors of the Chase Bank, Mr Winthrop Aldrich, declared the indictments a senseless outrage. All the acts complained of happened before Pearl Harbour. The Chase Bank, like all other large banks, had many thousands of transactions Involving the interpretation of the foreign exchange regulations. Smit pleaded not guilty.