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

CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY,

Yesterday Ernile 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 men. chants in Path, of goods of the value of from £25,000 to
£30,000. Gustave Lheraan, one of the persons with whom
the prisoner is accused of conspiring, is now in 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 the Mansion-house poliee-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 u
con-
spiracy was preferred, 721 et. which the charge of ak they were afterwards proved in
evidence. The partiP,,
he said, accused both of the alleged
conspiracy and of
the forgeries, were all foreigners, and the
case against t'lio
prisoner Werner had this peculiar aggrava-
tion, that' re was a confidential servant of the firm whom he
Was ar-eused of conspiring to defraud. He acted as their
ag",nt 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 thorn 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 he bespoke the earnest
attention of the Bench to the circumstances which would
be given in evidence.

Mr Nicolas Tanco Arturo, whom ho called, said—l am
one of the firm of Legrand, Tanco, and Co., of 11, Rue
Bergere, Paris, bankers and merchants. In May, 1863, the
prisoner Werner was introduced to me in Paris, and very
highly recommended by an old established holm, and we
engaged him to act as our agent iu London, at a salary of
from 4,000 f. to 5,000 f., 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 introducel
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 poisoner did very little business.
I requested him by letter in December to furnish 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- Ho 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
bDuescienme
sbse
boor
required
a:lz h
were M. Lheman and M. Arend. I directed him to inquire
as to their solvney. When he called on me in Paris in
teo saidh a
vthatina
rorder t toek
in increasehand the
iin
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 Switz -
erland to purchase silk goods. He went, and there and in
Paris he bought goods on our account to the amount of
from £25,000 to £30,000. He had unlimited power to buy.
Those goods were all sent to our office in Cheapside, and
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