The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-02-07

| Insurance Commissioner Elmer E.
Dearth yesterday morning revoked the
license Of the Fort Wayne Fire Insur-
ance company, of Fort Wayne, Ind, to
! operate in the state Of Minnesota The
order of revocation was caused by the
| discovery that certain alleged securities
ard certificates of stock in the Amer
lean Sugar Refinery company, of the
| face value of $195 900, filed as security
| for the permission to operate, are not
| satisfactory.
| The Fort Wayne Fire Insurance COM
| pany has been operating in Minnesota
| for over q year. 1t is incorporated un-
| der the laws Of Indiana, and the head
office is located at Fort Wayne, but the
bulk Of the business is transacted from
the Chicago Office.
1T is one Of the most stupendous at
tempts that / ever heard of to deceive
the state of Minnesota said Insurance
| Commissioner Dearth yesterday
when the Fort Wayne Fire Insurance
company applied for permission to OPP
crate in Minnesota, among the lot of
| assets filed in my department to estab-
lish the reliability of the corporation
| was lot of mortgage securities aggre-
eating $4,000 in value. =
For certain reasons I became Sus-
picious Of the value Of the mortgages
and commenced an investigation which
resulted, last December in the discov-
cry that the paper was practically
worthless. / Immediately acquainted
the officers of the company with the
result Of my investigations, and short
1y after an agent brought up in place
Of the mortgage securities certificates
of common stock in the American Su-
gar Refining company that had come
into the hands of the insurance COM
pany1 by transference. The. stock of
course was perfectably acceptable. as it
is interest-bearing and gilt-edge. The
agent told ME that all Of the mortgages
had been cancelled and the stock OBJ
tanned by purchase
Il began to feel that it would be
best to find out If the stock was all
right. So I wrote to the head office of
the American Sugar Refining company,
sent down the numbers of the certifl
Gates and the names of the parties to
whom the stock purported to have been
issued and inquired as to the validity
of the issue, and if certain certificates
were bona fide.
In reply to my letter. of inquiry /
received communication from one of
the officials CT the American Sugar Re-
filming company informing me that
as l described issued, and that there
was none of the stock Of any kind in
| the names of the parties.
Il wired these facts to the insurance
company asking that cause be shown
why the license should not be revoked
on the showing made. I received a re-
ply saying that an agent of the COM
pany would be here Immediately, and
imploring me for short delay before
taking any action A few days later l
received a letter from the secretary of
the refinery company saving that the
stock about which I had inquired was
all right. and that a mistake had been
| made in the former communication.
Still things did not seem entirely
satisfactory, and I sent copy of the
letter with power Of attorney to an
attorney In New York who went to
the office where it was found that the
stock was bogus, and the man whose
signature was appended to the letter I
had received said that his handwriting
had been counterfeited, and denied all
knowledge of the matter I heard from
the New York man this morning and
Immediately Cancelled the license of the
cOmDanV"