The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-11 00:00:00

CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY,

Yesterday Emile Werner, a Frenchman, aged 27, residing
at Richmond, and who had been arrested on a warrant, was
brought before Alderman Hale at the Justice-room of the
Mansion-house, charged with conspiring with others to de-
fraud Messrs Legrand, Tanco, and Co., bankers and met.-
chants in Paris, of goods of the value of from £25,000 to
£30,000. Gustave Llraan, one of the persons with whom
the prisoner is acclised of conspiring, is now fa custody on a
charge of forging bills of exchange to the amount of £4,300
and upwards, under circumstances which were partly stated
in evidence at tiro Mansion-house police-court on Wednes-
day, and one Arend and others not in custody are the other
parties alleged to be implicated in the charge of conspiracy,
Mr Lewis, jun., conducted the examination, having first
related the circumstances under which the charge of con-
spiracy was preferred, as they were afterwards proved in
evidence. The parties, he said, accused boih of the alleged
conspiracy and of the forgeries, were all foreigners, and the
case against the prisoner Werner had this peculiar aggrava-
tion) that he was a confidential sex vent of the firm whom he
was accused of conspiring to defraud. He acted as their
agent in London for the sale of merchandise, principally
silks, in which capacity he received a salary of £2OO, with a
commission, which probably increased it to £6OO or £7OO. His
principals were persons of long standing and great respecta-
bility in the city of Paris, and they had given him almost
unlimited power to purchase goods for them in the French
markets, but had charged him, under no circumstances, to
dispose of them in London to any but houses of established
repute, or without consulting certain gentlemen of commer-
cial eminence in the City of London whom they named, and
to whom they themselves had been long known. Mr Lewis
then, in some detail, stated the manner in which the prisoner
was alleged to have lent himself, in spite of those injunctions,
to defraud his employers in a couple of months of that large
amount of property, acting for that purpose with persons
whom he designated as swindlers, and who had afterwards
sold part of it at 50 per cent, less than the invoice price, and
had pledged the rest with money changers. He adverted to
the importance of such a case to a commercial community
like that of the city of London, and ho bespoke the earnest
attention of the Bench to the circumstances which would
be given in evidence.

Mr Nicolas Tanco Armor°, whom ho called, said—l am
one of the firm of Legrand, T--

us .t.. Tanco, and Co., of 11,
Bergere, Paris, bankersegrand and, merchants. In May, 1863,Ru0 the
prisoner Werner was introduced to me in Paris, and very
highly recommended by an old established house, and we
engaged him to act as our agent in London, at a salary of
from 4,0001. to 5,0001., besides a commission of 1 per cent,
on the sales he effected, and the payment of all expenses
connected with the trade. We took an office in Cheapside,
and I directed him to proceed to London, to take with him
samples of all our different commodities and goods, princi-
pally silks, and to endeavour to trade with some of the best
houses, a list of which was handed to him. Before trans-
mitting orders, however, to us, he was to consult with a
few respectable firms in the city to whom we introduce.]
him as to the commercial standing and respectability of the
parties. I presented him myself to some of those houses for
that especial purpose. 'We told him, moreover, that he was
to send us a monthly report of his sales and accounts, and
to keep his accounts by double entry, and in other respects
according to the usages of commerce. Between May and
December of last year the prisoner did very little business.
I requested him by letter in December to furni-h us with an
account of his operations. He came to Paris in the begin-
ning of January last, and represented to me that business had
begun to be promising, and that he had come with two buyers
connected with respectable houses in London. I asked him
to introduce them to me as I wanted to see them, but he de-
clined, on the ground that they were busy, and could not
come to our office. He did not then tell me who they were.
I had not asked their names. In the beginning of February
last I came to London, and the prisoner then told me they
were AL Lhema
sewn
as to their se•
and M. Arend. I directed him to inquire
ncY• When he Ailed on me in Paris in
December or January he said that in order to increase the
business be required to have a largo stock in hand in
London all through the year, and that he must have it be-
fore the spring, as the London "season„ would begin then.
In January I gave him directions to go to Lyons and Swizz •
°Hand to purchase silk goods.
He went, and there and in
noeurhaadecuenulnimt
ittoedthpeov,a.ernrotuonbtuyo.f
to our office in Cheapside, and
Those
hea
from
si sex ha2esoo, boughtdoswtoer
se
aoo oi
od
osa c
n. o
tn
before they could have arrived the prisoner, as our agent
there, was disposing of them as fast as possible. They
consisted of silks principally, of the value of about £16,000,
about £2,000 worth of plush, some £2,000 worth of leather,
and cotton goods to the amount of about £6,000. That is a