Great Swindles

In London, where some of the world's greatest swindles are performed (Londoner Clarence Hatry still holds the record with his $67,000,000 job--TIME, Oct. 21, 1929 et seq.), Justice dealt in Old Bailey Court last week with Brynar James Owen. Swindler Owen, soon after the recent Imperial Conference of the Empire Prime Ministers (TIME, Oct. 13 et seq.), walked into the office of International Harvester Company of Great Britain, Ltd. He said that he was the director of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering & Research at Oxford University, a project financed by the Ministry of Agriculture. This was strictly true. He said that the Institute had been commissioned by the Imperial Conference to nominate firms from whom 100,000 tractors costing some -L-65,000,000 ($325,000,000) would be purchased to carry out a four-year plan of Empire Development. In their willingness to be nominated, I. H. C., Ltd. could understand Director Owen's willingness, which he presently disclosed, to accept -L-30,000 for the conduct of "experiments" at his Institute preliminary to the four-year plan. Impressive letters on stationery headed Treasury and Imperial Conference gave Swindler Owen the cachet not only of honor but of friendship with the great. Soon Dr. Owen got Oxford to give him an honorary M. A. He pretended that he already had the rank of Doctor (of Engineering), a rank highly esteemed in Europe.* He went about Oxford arm-in-arm with England's intellectually great and smart. Dr. Owen next persuaded the Ministry of Agriculture that he should visit the U. S., to study advanced methods in agricultural schools. He returned to England with the glad news that in California his wife had stumbled upon her long-lost mother and that the old lady, believe it or not, had become fabulously rich in oil! She had given her daughter an income of $50,000, which accounted for the lordly way in which the Director of Oxford's Institute of Agriculture was now living (his salary was only -L-1,000). As late as Feb. 2 last "Dr." & Mrs. Owen were having in London a grand & glorious time. On Feb. 3, Dr. Owen was called upon by Augustus Maxwell Rode, controller and assistant treasurer of International Harvester Company of America, whose office is in Brussels. Mr. Rode and Dr. Owen had words. "Does this mean that your company doubts my bona fides?" drawled Oxonian Owen. Controller Rode stood his ground. On Feb. 12, Dr. Owen contemptuously offered to repay I. H. C., Ltd. out of his own pocket the whole $150,000 they had advanced. Did they really want it, with all that such a transaction would imply? They did. He wrote a check, which they promptly deposited. When next I. H. C., Ltd. saw this bit of paper it bore the rubber stamp, "Account closed." On Feb. 18 Dr. Owen was deep in conversation at the Savoy Hotel with Alexander Roland Smith, general manager of Ford Motor Co., Ltd. As I. H. C. were now out of the picture, Ford, Ltd. were willing to be nominated, although General Manager Smith expressed surprise, pleased surprise, that so large an order as one for 120,000 tractors should be placed by the Imperial Conference at a single clip. Dr. Owen dispelled this surprise, borrowing at the same time from Ford, Ltd. $170,000 for his Institute's "experiments." Thus Dr. Owen had enough money to make good his worthless check--although it did not appear last week that he ever did so--and $20,000 more. Thirty-one days quietly passed. Not until March 21 did Ford, Ltd. smell a rat, on hearing that Dr. Owen had been suspended as Director of the Oxford Institute. General Manager Smith called up Dr. Owen at his luxurious hotel in Cannes. Dr. Owen said that his suspension was due to a "personal quarrel" at Oxford and would not affect Ford, Ltd.'s nomination. Suspicion, during the next three weeks, built its nest around the Perfect Swindler. His letterheads and his cliches, it was noticed, were not quite like British officialdom's letterheads and cliches. By April 16, Dr. Owen was in the grasp of efficient British Justice at Bow Street Police Court. "I plead not guilty," cried Swindler Owen, looking Chief Magistrate Sir Chartres Biron in the eye. "I have a perfect answer to these outrageous charges!" He gave the answer last week in Old Bailey, or rather there was no answer. Sentence: four years penal servitude. Next case? "Jake the Barber." About to break last week was a swindle story which U. S. Department of Justice operatives in Chicago and Philadelphia said will reveal a "monster ring of British swindlers" led by Chicago's dapper John ("Jake the Barber") Factor. According to the Secret Service, Mr. Factor, operating with British associates in London and at Le Touquet, has fleeced numerous prominent Britons, including Edward of Wales, out of no less than $7,000,000. To Department of Justice sleuths it seemed credible that H. R. H. was sold stock at Le Touquet in a nonextant oil well. Le Touquet croupiers remembered last week that Mr. Factor and H. R. H. have played baccarat at the same table-- which proves nothing. In Chicago last week Mr. Factor got away from his luxurious apartment just before the Secret Service men arrived. But they nabbed in Philadelphia an Englishman called Harry Geen, said to be Factor's swindling lieutenant.

* The late, great Dr. Gustav Stresemann won his degree with a thesis on the development of the Berlin market in bottled beer.

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