Connecticut western news., 1875-05-21
THE WHISKY FRAUDS.
Breaking Upg 2 Ring that has Been De-
 frauding. &theS Government Out Of


 frauding. 6thes Government Out of
 Revenue.
 The whisky frauds which have recent ly been brought to light in the United States have evidently reached dimensions little, if at all, inferior to those attained during the operations of the ring, which eliminated in 1866. Seizures have been made by government officers of thirty distilleries and rectifying establishments in various cities of the West and South. St. Louis heads the list with seizur of property to the value of $7O0,0O0. It is estimated that the ring have been making a profit of over one million dol lars year and defrauding the govern ment out of large sums of revenue.
 There were several methods discovered by which the frauds detected were per petrated. The following is a descrip tion of one of the favorite modes. It involved collusion between the distiller, the rectifer, the gauger, and, perhaps, the storekeeper. Each distiller had @ favorite rectifer. For instance, Bevis & Frasers sent their goods to Bevis, Frasers & Co.,; Uric, distiller, and Ten scher, distiller, sent their products to G. Bensberg and Bingham Brothers, who also have branch houses in Evansville, Ind, and New Orleans, sent their goods to Foederer to be rectifed. All these parties, by the way, Ere in St. Louis. Under the regulations of the Internal Revenue bureau, when goods are sent to rectifying establishment, the rectifier must, before emptying the package, give notice on @ blank form, No. 122. of his intention to rectify or restill. The form requires that the serial number of the packages, the number of the warehouse and tax-paid stamps, with the number of gallons and proof of the spirits, and the name of the original inspector, and the distIler who produced it, shall be stated. When this notice from the rectifer is re- ceived at the office of the collector, he sends gauger back to the rectifying house with it, and the gauger is re- quired to verify the numbers and con- tents of the packages, and on the bot tom of the form he must certify that he saw the contents of the packages emptied, and the stamps, marks, and numbers on the barrels erased and de- stroyed. ,-.. r.-.......
 When the spirits have thus been emptied in the presence of the gauge1 and the proper entries have been made, the notice is returned to the office of the collector, and at the end of the month all such notices are forwarded from the collectors office to the commissioner o1 internal revenue. The history of the barrels of high wines thus disposed of if all the officers concerned have done their duty, is ended so far as the govern ment is concerned, since the tax has beer paid on the production, and the rectife1 and various dealers through whom il afterward passes to the consumer, arc dealt with according to other methods
 The law has been violated by the i'm plicated producers and officers, who have either emptied the barrels without de stroying the stamps, and have sent then back to the distillers to be reflled an( introduced into trade surreptitiously, ol in most of the cases openly, without sus picion, through regular channels. II some cases the erasure of numbers an( marks on the emptied barrels has beer apparently complete, but the stamp have been carefully and ingeniousl. "ifted," and returned to the distiller tt be reused.
 Another method of defrauding thu revenue was to take out twice as man, barrels as taxes were paid upon, ant afterward to introduce the untaxet packages into trade in such way as t, elude suspicion from the local officers il cities to which goods were shipped.