A NEW SWINDLE

Hokitika Guardian, 21 February 1927, Page 1

A NEW SWINDLE

NEW YORK, Dec. 23. A swindle of gigantic dimensions per. pet-rated by Western share-pushers at the expense of the denizens of New York’s slums was revealed to-day by the Down Town Chamber of Commerce. Estimates of amounts extracted from the Christmas Ravings Bank Funds of the poorer classes of New York range from £2O to £loo.'ooo. The victims of these financial pirates were only too anxious to part with their money, for it was represented to them that they would be promoting the success of one of the greatest philanthropic enterprises on record. About- two months ago August Hecksher, a multi-millionaire, after an intensive study of the methods employed by London to rid itself of its slums, made public the details of a magnificent scheme involving ultimately an expenditure of £IOO.OOO-000 for dednolishing the slums of New York and providing temporary housing for the ousted tenants until model dwellings could be substituted for insanitary and crowded tenements which now disfigure the east side of America’s greatest citv. 50 MILLIONAIRES. Hecljsher called for voluntary contributions on a grand scale from 50 mil-

lionaires besides himself towards the realisation of this grandiose plan. Slum-dwellers were so eager tor the promised amelioration of. their living conditions that their savings fell like ripe fruit into the pockets of swindlers. They were canvassed by a gang of more than 50 men, most of them in the late ’twenties or early ’thirties, j who, giving spurious addresses in j Chicago, and other towns, moved into I the crowded districts of Lower New j York and established residences there. They promised their victims a magi- I cal transformation of their houses if j only they would help the millionaires, i who were paying most of the expenses. Alleged bonds in a great building I project, as a result of these representations, sold like hot cakes. Slumdwellers rushed their hundreds to the savings banks, and withdrew their savings. Bank officials, seeking for the reason of the unprecedented withdrawals, discovered that the savings of their depositors were being exchanged for the bonds. ARRESTS IMMINENT. "When the Down Town Chamber of Commerce came to examine the situation to-day, it found that 4000 people had lost their savings. The arrests of the swindlers are believed to bo imminent. The methods thus practised by Western share pushers in New York are not a whit worse than those practised by New York share pushers in London, Manchester, Liverpool, and scores of other English towns. Only recently one of the prominent figures in the oil swindle exposed by the “Daily Mail” returned to New York. He is reported by his associates to have sold to his English dupes, even 1 after the exposures, almost worthless shares for £20,000.