SUPER FINANCIER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 684, 8 June 1929, Page 26

SUPER FINANCIER

RUSSIAN ADVENTURER'S JEWELLED STAFF GERMAN BANK’S FAILURE How easily money can at times be obtained in Berlin is illustrated by the collapse of the Raiffeisen Bank, says the “Sunday News.” In 1924 and 1925, when money was difficult to obtain in Germany, this bank —administered by Nationalist politicians, and intended to assist farmers financially—advanced millions of marks to a Russian adventurer named Uralzef. At his offices in Western Berlin Uralzef presided like an Eastern despot. In his waiting-rooms and offices were elegant ladies, loaded with jewellery, inspiring with confidence the clients who came to deposit money with the firm, on the promise of high interest. It was not unusual for him, when in a good humour, to say to the head waiter, “This week you get no tip. My car is outside. Take it home. It belongs to you.” Thus Ux-alzef was reputed to be the possessor of untold wealth.

Through another Russian, a relative of Rykov, the Russian People's Commissar, he bought an old-established private Berlin Bank. Using Rykov’s name diplomatically, he gained the confidence of leading personages at the Raiffeisen Bank. The latter bank was persuaded that Rykov’s relative could do immense business with the Soviet Government, and so credits were granted. To the Raiffeisen, Uralzef proposed that a large quantity of German chemicals and dyes—which the French had confiscated during their occupation of the Ruhr, and which lay in Paris — should be purchased, as they were offered at far below the market prices. They could then be sold to the Soviet Government at an immense profit. For inspection by the Raiffeisen bankers, some casks of dyes were taken to Switzerland and placed with a large number of empty barrels. Millions of Marks Credit All these were shown to representatives of the Raiffeisen Bank, and the result was credits for millions of marks. Uralzef is said to have obtained still further millions by pretending that he had acquired a factory in Dresden, to be used to manufacture chemical products for export to Russia. When matters threatened to become disastrous, Uralzef removed to Paris. Meanwhile, the Raiffeisen Bank has gone into liquidation, for it cannot recover the £2,500,000 that it advanced on the representations reported.