Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1895-04-06
A CLEVER SCHEME
Beating the Government by
Forged Certificates.
WORK OF AN ORGANIZED GANG

Plan to Furnish Chinese Fraudulent
Repatriation Baked by Arrests i'm
san neutrality-suspicious. Had Been
Established in Important Cities.
SAN Francisco, March 30.-Federal
officers tonight caught two men in the
act of forging Chinese registration GER
titcates and arrested them. They are
employees of the Oceanic Steamship
Company, and are named Foss and Clip
rico. These two were arrested at 765
Clay street, in Chinatown, the head
quarters of the gang. Besides F. c..
Ciprico and H. L. Foss, J. d. Sullivan,
Max Katznaur and Moses Greenwald
were also arrested. Katznaur was ar
rested in a saloon. He is said to be a
relative of Banker Seligman, of New
York. Greenwald is cousin of Louis
Greenwald, one of the Emerald opium
smuggling gang. Ciprico has an Office
in Wells Fargo's building, which was
also one of the headquarters of the gang.
OF the other men nothing is known.
The government officials claim to have
unearthed a gigantic conspiracy to forge
such certificates, and that the gang had
established agencies in at important
points on the coast, as we'll as in the
principal Eastern cities. Todd, who is
said to be at the head, has number of
associates, who have laid their plans
carefully with reference to selling the
forged certificates throughout the coun-
try at a uniform price. The rate on
la hSNropc a nd ~
500. Robert Burns, ir., says that H.
l.. Foss, the freight clerk on the Oceanic
dock, W 10 has hitherto been charged
with smuggling and other offenses, is
one OF the ringleaders of the forgers,
and that FOss and a Co-forger-the no.
torious EXCLUSIONS Officer CipricO-had
their plans perfected to begin issuing
to-day.
A photogra pher, formerly in the ser-a
vice of the government, is suspected of
being one OF the most skillful members
of the gang, which embraced men named
Wichman, Greenwald, Davis, Bates,
Harvey and Devereaux. There is a
probability that great deal OF the work
has been done in Victoria, and that the
plates from which the certificates were
printed are now there, though the sigma
ture and photographs for Identification
have been made here. The penman is
from Victoria, and is an expert of rare
skill.
In laying plans to entrap the agents
of the forgers the collector hired several
Chinese engaged in business in China to
act as decoys. A member of the band,
who came from Oregon to help sell the
forged instruments, stumbled upon one
of the departments Chinese Gecoys al
most at the outset of his negotiations,
and it was through this blunder that
the forgers betrayed themselves. For
days and weeks the Investigations have
been pushed, and every detectives re-
port has shown that the plans of the :
operators were far-reaching, their rami-
tications being so great as to involve
several men who formerly held places of
honor in this country. Some of the first
evidence of the far-reaching plans of
the operators came from New Mexico in
December, at which time it was discov-
cred that some of the forged certificates
had been offered for sale at Santa Fe.
Soon thereafter the certificates we're
found in Oregon.
WHO THEY ARE.
SEATTLE, March 30.-Max Katznaur
is Victoria man and reputed to be the
leading smuggler on Puget Sound. Todd
is said to have been collector of internal
revenue at Spokane.