Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-06-08
Astounding Frauds and their Ont
Compromise.

rageOus Compromise.
From the Cincinnati Gazette, June o.
The great Custom House frauds at Bos-
ton, of which mysterious notices have,
from time to time, appeared in the East
ern papers, are pretty fully set forth in a
phamphlet by eX-Collector Goodrich, of
Boston. Mr.. Goodrich was removed from
Office a few months since, and his opp5-
nents have asserted that he and Mr.. Tuck,
the Naval Officer who was also dismissed,
lost their places from having been bene-
fted pecuniarily by compromise with the
guilty parties. To prove his innocence
Mr.. Goodrich has entered into a long ex-
PLANTATION of the facts.
John D. and Moses Williams, heavy
importers of wines and liquors, had con-
stantly and systematically cheated the
Government for ninteen years, by means
of false invoices on champagne. In 1865
their fraud was suspected, and their books
seized. From them abundant evidence
was obtained that, at the instigation Of
the MsssrE. Williams, 8 French wine
maker, L. RoedereF, manufacturer of the
Schneider brand Of champagne, invoiced
his wines st q rate much below their mar
ket value. This invoice was presented
at the custom house, while another of the
correct amount wa sent TO the Will
liamses. The loss to the Government
from this trickery between 1886 and 1865
exceeded the enormous sum of 81, 200, 900.
1t was also proved that the frm had
played a similar game in regard to i'm
portations of sherry, the frauds in this
case amounting TO over $4,000. The
offenses dating more than five years back
could not be punished, by reason of the
operation Of the statute of limitations, and
the others the offenders were DESTROYS of
compromising. They employed as their
agent TO wait on the Collector one Sam
uel A. Way. He offered 100000 as a
settlement. This Mr.. Goodrich refused,
demanding, Gs he says, from three TO five
hundred thousand dollars. Finally, the
Secretary Of the Treasury authorized him
to accept theSI00, 000, exclusive of S25, 900
paid to settle the sherry transaction, and
discharge the guilty parties. This settled
the question so far as the Williamses
we're concerned, but it leaked out that
Way received in addition to the $l25,O 900,
the sum of $4,000, osvensibly cot for his
own benefit, but to be used at his discre-
ton. Mr.. Goodrich denies that he got
any Of it, and says he thinks that neither
Mr.. Tuck nor any other Custom House
official, to bis knowledge and belief ro-
ceived any. The inference from this is
that either Way pocketed the whole sum
or paid it to some persons whose names
do not appear. 1t does not seem proba-
BILE that Way would have any scrurles
about asking pay for his services, or that
he would make use of transparent evasion
to get so large a snm; nor, had he done
the latter, would his shrewd and unscru-
pulous patrons have failed to see through
i.
1t Is net our purpose 10 attempt to
trace out the course which the thirty-odd
thousand dollars of service money took,
but the whole affair was simply abomin-
able. The wealth of the swindlers should
not have screened them. They not only
cheated the Government during q time
when it needed every dollar of revenue
it could raise, hut regularly periured them
selves on the arrival of q consignment of
champagne. For Government officials to
negotiate with such raseals through a
hired go-between, was outrageous. The
additional suspicion of bribery could
render their conduct more odious.