GERMAN FRAUD SCANDAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 449, 3 September 1928, Page 9

GERMAN FRAUD SCANDAL

STIMULANTS FOR STINNES COLLAPSED IN HIS CELL (United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) (United Service I BERLIN, Sunday. The shock of his arrest so severelyaffected Hugo Stinnes that the regular administration of stimulants and the constant attendance of doctors were necessary to keep him alive during his first night in the cells. He was in a state of semi-collapse this morning, when questioned regarding his share in the plot to defraud the Reich. The alleged plot is connected with the law designed to restore to investors in the German war loan a fragment of their lost money. Those who prove that they purchased their s’tock before July, 1920, were to have 12i per cent, of the capital refunded, plus interest, and later purchasers were to receive only 2j per cent., without interest. It was anticipated that there would be widespread attempts to defraud. It was estimated that the Reich would have lost £16,000.000. if all the attempts discovered last year had been successful. PROPOSED BRIBERY The Stinnes case is only one of many. To-day's interrogations caused a sensation. It is alleged that information was given that Herr Heinzmann, the Reich commissioner, who is investigating the war loan frauds, would have quashed the proceedings against Stinnes If he had been paid £5,000 through a Paris banker. Heinzmann, when confronted by Stinnes, denied the allegation, but Herr Waldow confirmed Stinn s's story, saying the banker had personally made the offer, which Stinnes rejected, regarding it as blackmail.