LOST FORTUNE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20274, 7 April 1934, Page 24 (Supplement)

LOST FORTUNE.

The Millions of Abdul the Damned. ASTONISHING CLAIM. A BRITISH COMPANY with a capital of 7,500,000 Canadian dollars has been formed to prosecute the most astonishing claim to millions on record. The company has come to an agreement with the heirs of Sultan Abdul Hamid—“ Abdul the Damned,” the tyrant who ruled the Turkish Empire for thirty-three years—and acquired their rights in the enormous fortune of which the Sultan is said to have been wrongfully dispossessed. The title of the company which has undertaken to recover the lost fortune, the Consolidated Eastern Corporation, Ltd., state in their circular that Abdul Hamid is believed to have left a fortune of £100,000,000.

The recoverable value of the property is estimated at roughly £30,000,000, and “as a conservative estimate, after payment of all outgoings, percentages, etc., the corporation should receive not less than £10,000,000.” Shareholders and the heirs of the Sultan—there are more than 100 of these—are to divide the proceeds on a fifty-fifty basis. Negotiation—and perhaps litigation on a grand scale—with many Governments will be necessary to advance the claims of the Sultan’s many heirs. The countries concerned in this fight for millions are Britain, France, Italy, Turkey, Palestine and Greece. Famous international lawyers have been retained by the corporation, and it is stated that a case was to be submitted to the British Government at the end of February or early in March. Abdul Hamid, who was deposed m 1909 and died in 1918, is said to have had vast estates in many lands to which his heirs are glearly entitled. The Consolidated Eastern Corporation state that the most valuable rights are oil concessions in Iraq. There are also, it is said, vast tracts of agricultural land between the Tigris and Euphrates, as well as rich properties in Syria, Palestine, Greece and Tripoli. The recent treaty between France and Turkey concerning Syria establishes, according to the corporation, the rights of those heirs who remain Turkish nationals. The corporation has informed shareholders that the deal with the French Government is expected to produce £5,000,000, and that a deal with the Greek Government should realise £300,000 in cash and approximately £2,000,000 in bonds.