MONTE CARLO WELLS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 162, 26 November 1912, Page 4

MONTE CARLO WELLS.

A MAX OP PARTS. ASTONISHING CAREER OF LUCK AND FRAUD. A cablegram yesterday stated that Wells and Jeanne Pairis have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment. "The Man that Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," Charles Wells, was arrested on board ihe luxuriously-fitted steam yacht Harbinger in Falmouth Harbor in January last. Since May, 11)11. Wells, whose age is about 70, and a much younger woman, Jeanne Pairis, had been living on board the yacht with a Cornish crew, who described them as ideal employers. They spent most of their time fishing, and only landed to visit a theatre or a travelling booth, in the market place. Upon being arrested, Wells appears to have admitted his identity with Lueien Rivier, whom the French police bad been wanting for an alleged remarkable fraud. The allegation is that from June, 1910, to April, 1911, Wells carried on business in Paris as "La Rente Bimensuelle," offering 1 per cent, per day for all moneys de- r posited with him'. This 365 per cent. interest attracted hosts of investors, especially as, while comparatively few took the bait, the interest was duly paid fortnightly. Rivier is stated to have disappeared, eventually, with £40,000; and Joanne Pairis, who passed as his niece, disappeared with him. When arrested. Wells bad £l*2oo standing in his »ame at Barclay's Bank. Finally they were extradited to France.

"Monte Carlo" Wells, also known as "(he man with 3(1 aliases," has had a remarkable career. Rom, it is said, in 1842 (though in lflOfi he received a light sentence on the ground that he was then 71), ho was educated in France as a civil engineer. In 1885 he was sentenced in France, in his absence, to two years' imprisonment; having previously run an industrial bank. Coming to England with .CSOOO. he took out nearly 100 patents for all soils of things, from musical skipping ropes to torpedoes and electric lights, and advertised for financial assistance, lie raised nearly £30,000 (including £IB,OOO from the sister of a High Court judge which he was to turn into £:>.>i»,ooo). Then came the Monte Carlo campaign. Wells was financed there, he said, by two American gentlemen, and claimed to have made £63,000 in five months, of which his own share was £-20,000, In 1803 he was awarded eight years' penal servitude. When he came out he married a French woman, with whom he lived in a, log cabin on Bantry Bay. Ho next, appeared in London as the .South and South-west Coast Travelling Syndicate. This earned more money and imprisonment. Wells speaks English, French and Italian fluently, and has passed as a professor of languages and a piano teacher.