St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-28
LAWRENCE CONFEssEs.
How Bank Examiner Drew Was
Fooled in Figures.

Fooled in Figures.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 27. - ExAS-
sistant Cashier Charles Lawrence, Of
the Keystone bank. has written a state
ment of the methods which were used
to deceive ex-Bank Examiner Drew.
Lawrence is in the Eastern prison serv-
ing seven years for completely in wreck
ing the bank. The letter is as follows:
Col. W. M. P. DREw-Dear Sir: I
desire to submit to you the following
circumstances as to the manner in
which you, as national bank examiner,
were deceived in your examination Of
the Keystone national bank. In the
first place, permit me to say that in
general every means possible were used
to both swell the assets of the
bank and to dimish the liabilities.
There was not regular method
adopted, but at one time some
times some other plan suggested itself.
l can. therefore, only tell you in a gen
eral way of the various things done to
deceive you without specifying any par
ticuiar time at which the particular
Justification was made.
First. as to the Individual ledgers.
Those came within the scope of my
own knowledge and are facts with
which am personally acquainted. AS
to the other departments my knowl-
edge comes from what i have seen and
heard, and therefore am about to draw
J pretty strong differences. The individ7
ual ledgerS were altered at least twice
every year-about the times you were
! looked for. This was done by me since
| 1880, and the methods pursued were va
riOuS. Sometimes whole pages were
distracted. Mostly false balances were
made by altering the pencil figures.
! Large balances were decreased,
and overdrafts wiped entirely
/ out. Sometimes false credits were
| posted to an Overdrawn account, so that
your attention would not be drawn to
the ledger more infinitely by an over
| drawn account, when you might posi-
bly, see something else to attract your
| attention. Sometimes false checks were
posted to an account having large bal
ance so as to reduce liabilities.
This you can readily see required al
| terations aud deliberations to very
large extent. Thus, il a check had
| been falsely posted to account and then
that party drew on the account himself.
| in the regular course of business, you
will see that it neceSSitated rearrange-
ment of his account and correspond
| ing change in some other account. This
was done to the extent of probably
| $780, 900 more or less-l cannot tell any
nearer than that.
Now l know that on the letters side
| there were memoranda carried as cash,
! which represented the amount Mr..
| Lucas owed the cash drawer. This
was replaced at the time of your exam
! ination by real cash, which was temp
| orarily borrowed. some times by means
of due bill taken from the back of the
| due bill book. some times by means of
| a certificate of deposit or by the presi-
dent obtaining a loan. The bills dis
counted were Swelled by the introduce
ton OF fictitious notes. These were in
tended both to swell the assets and to
take the place of other bills discounted,
which it was thought best not to let you
see as it might excite your suspicion
and put you on a more inquiSltive eX-
animation. Thus give you a general
idea of the various methods pursued.
OF course | have not gone into minute
details. A volume might be written on
this subject, but my ability in that di-
rection is limited. and | trust you will
find this sufficient to show you how diff
ficult it was for you or any one else to
discover the actual condition of the
bank. With sincere regrets for the
part | took in deceiving you in the
above matter and with the assurance
that it was not with the petty desire to
deceive you. but with desire to carry
ont the instructions of my superior
officer, feeling that it was any duty to
do so. and finally having once been
caught in the meshes and finding it i'm
possible to extricate myself, am re-
spectfully yours, CHAs. LAWRENCE.