A BIG PARIS SWINDLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 23, 17 June 1914, Page 8

A BIG PARIS SWINDLE.

Two arrests have been nmdc in Paris in connection with an establishment in the Boulevard Poissoniere, Which, under the name of "Gluckhaus," or House of Fortune, had for almost a year been currying on a large and lucrativ, but entirely fraudulent, patent business. The liluo'klmus pretended to patent and push in different .countries of Europe and elsewhere .such inventions as were submitted lo it. For its services it extracted considerable sums of money in advance—sums it promised to reimburse, Wit never did reimburse, in the event of the failure of the patent.

Inventors are a-feeble and credulous folk, and money poured into the coffers of tho Gluckhaus, which was a house of fortune for the promoters if for nobody else. The offices of the company were spacious and luxuriously furnished, and inspired confidence. "When an unfortunate client, becoming suspicious, arrived to claim the reimbursement of his deposits he was taken 'over the building and shown more especially the typists' rooms where eleven young hulks, with beautifully waved hair, were tapping a way at eleven glittering typewriters. The client*' cicerone would inform him with hater breath that not one of the elegant .young ladies received a salary of less than £SOO a year, lint this could not bo on for ever. Complaints began to flow in. M. Kloatcrman, the director of the agency, discreetly retired to Switzerland, where lie was soon joined by his Mdlle. Beckerer, whom he bad left in charge. The control of the agency then devolved on M. IJol'linger and M. Baumann, who are now under arrest. It appears that trustful inventors had handed over large sums of money to the Gluckhaus. One, a German, who had invented an automatic curtain—whatever that is—had deposited over £I2OO in advance fees. The agency advertised widely in all the great European papers, and received, so one of the employees said, an average of 200 letters a,day. The Gluckhaus had been in full blast for almost a year. Hjs defalcations, at a conservative estimate, amount to 1,000,00® francs.