“SILVER FOX ” FRAUD REAPED CROOKS A RICH HARVEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18009, 20 November 1926, Page 9

“SILVER FOX ” FRAUD REAPED CROOKS A RICH HARVEST.

INDUCED PRINCE MURAT TO JOIN IN SCHEME. (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, November 8. “Foxes and Sour Grapes” might well be the caption for the case whose opening, says the “Times” correspondent in Paris, is interesting the whole of France. Two ex-convicts, Baron Reith and Gaston Fontanille, the latter of whom has disappeared, are charged with fraud in connection with the flotation of a company to breed silver foxes. The accused changed their names, took a sumptuous office, and induced Prince Michel Murat to become chairman. They issued lavish prospectuses, and spent thousands of francs on publicity, salaries and expenses. Foxes •worth 300,000 francs were to be bought, each subscriber of 1000 francs becoming the part-owner of a fox and sharing the profit of the sale of the skin. The public, lured by a promise of a 900 per cent dividend, subscribed 1.700.000 francs. Ten fox cubs, unsuitable for breeding were partly paid for and most of them died. Prince Murat, whom the prospectus untruly described as a great fox breeder, admitted having received 24,000 francs. He said he knew nothing about the business, which he entered because lie had lost most of his wealth in Russia.