THE DANISH FRAUDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 261, 28 October 1908, Page 3

THE DANISH FRAUDS.

£500,000 MISSING. 1 STRANGE CONFESSION. Copenhagen, September 9. Immense excitement was caused today when it was suddenly made known that the former Minister of Justice and King's Privy Councillor, M. Adler AJberti, had given himself up to the police and confessed to embezzling bf fraud and forgery £500,000 from the Danish Peasants' Savings, Bank, of which he was chief director. A few days ago M. Albrr'.i took part in the Royal Shooting 01 rb'-s meeting, and was seated next to King Frederick, whose friend he was.

The forgeries have been going on for years. M. Alberti would lake bonds from the Savings Bank's safe and deposit them in the local banks, getting advances on them, and in - he same way procuring money from several English bankers. These bonds are issued to bearer, and it is therm ore unlikely that iny of the banks will sustain loss. Only 'Jle depositors will lye the losers. They lire mostly small investors living in all parts of the country. Only last week Alberti was in London to conduct negotiations for new loans. Tee Savings Bank to-night stopped payment. The nvws of the theft was not made known before the Stock Exchange closed. The streets to-night arc crowded, the excitement being beyond all description. The demand "for special editions of the papers is so enormous that more than double the usual prices are being p=i id for copies. The Cabinet is holding a meeting and, it is generally believed, will be compelled to resign. Alberti had been a Minister for seven yea" and was a leader of his ps«rty. Adler Alberti has had j .f-tarkable career. frhe defalcations represent the greatest scandal in Danish history. Until a few months ago Alberti w~ the principal political factor in tin. country .the all-powerful dictator whos. word swayed the various political parties and directed almost every action of his colleagues in the Cabinet. Sinister rumors concerning Alberti's financial affair? began to appear in the Opposition press rears ago. but time after time the indomitable will an.l brilliant oratory of the erstwhile lawyer's clerk silenced all criticism. In his capacity as president of Lite Zeeland Peasants' Savings Bank, an institution with branches all over the country, Alberti obtained an unbounded influence with tile rural classes, who regarded the Minister as a financial and political genius, and followed him with implicit confidence" in all his ventures. _ " ! "'Mi Unfortunately for Alberti, a recent meeting of shareholders in the Peasants' Savings Bank disclosed the fact that the annual receipts for the bank's bonds deposited as securities for loans obtained from the Priratbanken and the National Bank had not been properly scrutinised during the last few years by the accountants, and that, consequently, it had been made possible for the president to withdraw the seI curities and deposit them as guaranI tees for loans obtained elsewhere.