GIGANTIC BANK SWINDLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 44, 19 February 1873, Page 4

GIGANTIC BANK SWINDLE.

A most scandalous affair, which has created, an immense sensation throughout Germany and Europe, occurred a few days ago in Munich. The breakdown of the great Spitzeder bank, in Munich, is the talk of the day. Miss Adele Spitzeder, the daughter of an actor, already past the best years of life, and formerly an actress herself, took it into her head, about three years ago, to take up money at a high rate of interest. She got plenty of money, paid most punctually her 10 per cent. interest monthly for it, and lent it out again at 12 per cent, monthly to needy noblemen and officers. At a time when, you couldn't get 4J per cent, per annum for your money in Munich, Miss Spitzeder offered you 10 percent, monthly. No wonder, then, that Bmongst the stupid and ignorant she found plenty of customers. Miss Spitzeder was, besides, famed for her great piety. ' She wore round her neck a large golden cross, went twice a day to mass, and was on the terms of the greatest 1 intimacy with the Ultramontane Bavarian clergy, who exhorted their parishioners in town and country to deposit their savings with Adele Spitzeder, who would pay them 1203. per annum for every lOOfi. deposited at her bank. She was enabled to carry on for several years this sort of business only by lending out the money she received at a still higher rate, and by speculating on a grand scale ia house property, and on change. In one instance, it is stated that for 7000 florins she advanced, she received a promissory note for 16,000 florins. But her business could never have flourished as it did, and she could never have got as customers the small country people, if she hadn't entered into a close alliance with Ultramontanism, by whose aid she managed to get thousands of ignorant country people to deposit their savings with her, attracted as they were besides by the splendid gain. It became at last quite a mania with the working classes of Munich to invest their money at J-pWzeder's. People declared they would't work any longer, as they were enabled to live on the interest of the money invested at Miss Adele's. The unavoidable breakdown, with all its fearful consequences, came at last. She had, during the last few weeks, several times not been able to pay the bills presented to her, and the other day a deputation from the ! Munich Court of Justice suddenly appeared at her banking office, and demanded to see the books. But no books at all had been kept in this immense business; all that was to be found were loose bits of paper, on which notes had been made. The judicial researches and inquiries, however, resulted in the fact that the whole of the assets amount to 700,000 florins, whilst the liabilities reach the fearful sum of 15 millions. This result having been arrived at, notice was immediately sent to her private mansion to arrest her. She was found in her boudoir, the golden cross round her neck, reading in a breviary, and smoking a cigarette. The excitement and fury of the populace in Munich was such that the military had to be confined to the barracks, as at one time a revolution was feared. Soldiers occupied the street in which the: banking establishment is situated, and all precautions were taken against a popular outbreak, which happily did not take place. The scandal is immense, persons of the highest rank, well-known Catholic clergymen, even a bishop, are seriously compromised; the editors of the principal Ultramontane newspapers of Munich have fled, together with other compromised personages, to escape punishment. The misery will be fearful, as the bulk of the money belonged to thousands of small people in. : the; country. .This affair will happily prove a most serious blow to Ultramontanism in Bavaria, and so be in the end a blessing to the nation. It also throws a glaring light on the state of popular education and social affairs alto- ; getber in Bavaria under the guidance of I the Ultramontane clergy.' The trial wotffc take place for some time yet, the Bavarian • Government being occupied at present ; with the task ;<)f?finding;Mhe*.accpmplicesi and collecting K ateriß] S fcr:whatprorßißes W^become a very flenaaiional trial.— -4««- ] tralatian* :i Mi .!tf ;> v ;>■/'!;; ff: V:"' ;" \y.- rr'] /