KREUGER FRAUDS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 222, 13 May 1932, Page 5

KREUGER FRAUDS

(Press Assn.-

easy-going bankers BIG LOANS FLOATED WITHOUT USUAL INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS COMPLETE CONFIDENCE SHOWN

— By Telegraph — Copyright).

Rec. May 12, 5.5 p.m. NEW YORK, Wednes. A remarkahie revelation of the easy manner in which the late Ivar Kreuger linked up with the best known hankers in Wall Street, was made at the bankruptcy hearing of the International Match Company. Mr. Lee Higginson's company had received 6,300,000 dollars for the flotation of securities of a face value of 150,000,000 dollars for the match company, and never even thought of asking Kreuger for verification of his match monopolies, two of which, in Italy and Spain, are iiow shown to be noU-existent. Members of the family and friends of Mr. Higginsop. are still holdihg 8,000,000 dollars of Kreuger stock and debentures, such was their confidence in his integritv.

The match company permxtted Kreuger to take 50,000,000 dollars of German gold bonds belonging to it, which he used to raise a large personal loan. The well-known financier, Mr Percy Rochfeller, is disclosed as a heavy purchaser of Kreuger issues after meeting him. It was a polite request by Kreuger's Amexican bankers as to how he wished to repay the 11,000,000 dollar loan due to the International Telephone and Telegraph company which is believed to he the immediate cause of his suicide. The bankers were so unsuspicious that even after the suicide they did not sell his stock which was held as collateral.