St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-06
SWINDLED BY A SHARPER.
W. e. Ingham Parts Thousands Of Fools
and Their Money.
A SPECULATIVE SYNDICATE.
Its Head Got the Money and Its Men,
bers the Costly Expert
ence.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
NEW YORK, Oct. 5.-One Of the big
geSt swindling schemes that have been
worked in this city for many years has
been brought to light by the disappear
ance of one William II. Ingham and
closing of the brokerage Office of w. II.
Ingham & Co., No. So Broadway. AS
yet no accurate estimate of the swind-
lers' profits can be made, and very pos
sibly the extent of the fraud will never
be known. But, from present indica-
tiOns, losses of the victims of the specu-
lative mania will run we'll up into the
thousands. and may aggregate more
than 100000. The man who has so sue
cessfully played upon the gullible calls
himself William III. Ingham, though his
real name would probably not sound
like that. According to all accounts he
made his appearance i'll this city the
latter part of April, 1887. and opened
the Office Of W. II. Ingham & Co., at
No. 40 Broadway. His entry ON the
scene was soon followed by the appear
ance of advertisements in sundry
Provincial papers calling attention
to the immense profits to be
gained by investing in w. FL. Ingham
q Co.'s speculative syndicate" The
syndicate was briefly described as a
mutual pool, which was to operate in
direction of w. III. Ingham q Co. At
the end of the first month a printed
statement was forwarded to all stock
holders, for "memberS" as they were
termed. showing that the profits for the
month of May, 1887, were SO per cent.
The statements issued by the firm
taking them for what they were worth
go to show that the ''profts" for the
several months from June down were:
July, 43 per cent; August, "a per cent;
September, 67 per cent; October, 46 per
cent; November, Sc per cent; Decem-
ber, AZ per cent; January, 1888, 29 per
cent; February, 80 per cent; March,
1917 per cent; April, % per cent; May,
81 per cent; June 26 per cent; July, 25
per cent; August, Is per cent; Septem-
ber, about 25 per cent. of course these
profits" were all purely imaginary,
and such dividends as were paid were
paid out of the money
INVESTED BY THE DUPES.
How many of the nominal dividends
actually were paid cannot be ascer-
tanned, but since December at least the
paid. While Ingham's business was
booming along, and letters, telegrams
and visitors daily pouring in, he was
making preparations to close up shop.
On last Saturday he mailed card to his
victims, reviewing the career of the
syndicate and ann Juncing that in con-
sequence of members solicitations he
had met with heavy losses which had
forced him to suspend with the loss of
the entire syndicate memberships capi-
tai, and all its business and offices are
closed" The card goes on to signifi-
cantly remark that 1--WE only hold your
names," and concludes in this way:
''As soon as we can get matters ar
ranged and our accounts Strengthened,
with full details and figures of the
losses and trades,a ,and open offices again,
we will notify you. By the word of the
Co. after the name of w. Ell. Ingham is
meant each and every syndicate men,
Der constitutes the company of the
firm. Yours truly, w. HI. Ingham &
Co." According to the stories of the
other occupants of the building at No.
3S Broadway, Ingham was last seen at
his Office Saturday. He had had Yale
lock put on the outer door when he re-
moved to his new Office, and as he took
the key with him no one can now get
into the room. A glimpse through the
letter slit, however, shows a big accd-
mutation of mail lying on the floor.
where it has fallen through the slit.
Scores OF undeliYered kilograms for