The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-11-25
A NAPOLEON OF FINANCE
Indicted For Conspiracy to Defraud
in Brooklyn.
BUT HE Is AxoEa THE MISSING.

AsslHneu 10 EN-Sherlu Daily whom
the Police Raided the Place and Cap
tured Cash I'm sight and some Hidden
Brooklyn, Nov. 25-william +.
Miller. head Of the Franklin syndicate.
which has accepted the deposits Of
thousands Of persons under promise OF
/ paying dividends of 10 per cent a
week, or 500 per cent per annum. and
! Cecil Leslie, his secretary, were in
dicted by the Kings county grand jury
yesterday Bench warrants were is
sued for the arrest of these two men
but up to quite late hour neither had
| been found, the police saying that they
| had disappeared yesterday afternoon.
| Last night the police raided the prem
/ ises occupied by the Franklin syndi-
| cate, on Floyd street. There was
great crowd of people around the build
/ ing. and the police surrounded &C. In
/ spector Brennan arrested Louis Miller,
| brother of the head of the syndicate.
and the cashier of the concern. and
| took possession OF $4,000 in cash.
| There were 40 employees engaged at
work in the Offices and these were al
| lowed to go. II was stated by Louis
Miller to the police that the offices
were then in the hands of ex-Sheriff
/ Daley. OF Richmond. to whom, he
said the concern had assigned.
The charge upon which Miller was
! Indicted was that of conspiring to de-
| fraud The district attorneys Office
| in Brooklyn has been at work on the
case for some weeks, so prominent
have become Miller's operations in
that time.
Miller had been engaged for the past
| two years or so in offering his gilt
| tering inducements to the people to in
vest their money for him to make use
/ of, but it has been only within the
| last month that by extensive adver-
tising I'm one way or another he has
managed to attract to his Office hun
dreds of people daily, who gathered in
long line or fought with each other
for the opportunity to hand out their
savings
Even when the place was raided last
night by the police a number of those
around the offices were waiting to de-
posit money with the Franklin syndi-
cate.
The presence Of the police caused
| great excitement When they entered
the Office they were informed that at
/ 6 o'clock last night they had made an
assignment, in the borough OF Manhat.
tan, to James Daley, ex-sheriff of
Richmond. Chief of Detectives Rey-
nolds said that the police we're the
| assignees now. and put Daley off the
premises. Daley has been in the EN-
ploy of Miller for some time past.
or the $4,000 taken possession Of
| by the police something more than $5,-
900 In cash was found in the syndicate
offices. From the record which the
police had made of yesterdays de-
posits it was evident that a portion of
the money had been removed from the
offices, and Louis Miller, the cashier,
who was arrested, was called upon TO
make an explanation He at first re-
| fused but on being threatened by the
police said that Miss Annie Cory, an
| employe of the concern, who lived in
a house adjoining the offices, had been
| given the possession of large sum OF
money in the morning by the head of
the firm. The police went to the adj
Joining house, where they placed Miss
! Cory under arrest, and after an ex-
tended search they found nearly $1,000
! concealed in an old lounge in her
apartments. The woman then declared
that she had this money in her po-
session for the purpose OF paving the
employees of the syndicate. The po-
lice, however, took possession Of the
money and gave Miss Cory her liberty.
William Miller began the Franklin
syndicate in a very small way locat-
ing offices among the poorer classes in
the borough Of Brooklyn, and making
cne feature of his business the accept
ance of very small sums of money and
the alleged investment of them for
the poor people He claimed that by
inside tips on the stock market he was
able to reap large and quick profits, of
which he was willing to pay a large
percentage to his clients. 1t is claimed
that Miller was simply the represent
ative of a syndicate of men who had
been engaged in conducting blind
pools for years.
II is said that within the last week
Miller had received deposits of hum
dreds of people. aggregating a daily
amount from $50, 900 to $4,000. It Is
easy to see under these circumstances
how\the Franklin syndicate could
readily pay out 10 per cent OF this
amount week and still, make money.
Not only were the people living within
limits OF greater New York large de-
positors with the Franklin syndicate,
but cities all over the country con-
tributed the earnings OF scores of their
residents to swell the wealth of the
syndicate. The mail delivery daily at
Miller's office amounted TO about three
wagon loads. and most of the letters
contained money. Miller had faculty
OF displaying a large amount Of his
wealth. and the offices on Floyd street
were piled high with greenbacks OF all
denominations and heaps of gold. This
seemed to lend confidence to those who
came with their subscriptions, and It
the "endless chain" would have ended.
One of Miller's patrons who invested
800 Immediately turned around and
reinvested the 10 per cent allowed him
at the end of the first week, and kept
this up each week until, at the end OF
25 weeks, he found himself with a
credit of 81 029 AS Miller absolutely
refused to carry accounts of more than
81 900 this customer was compelled to
reinvest in the names OF other MEM
bers of his family A police official
said that he knew of a family con-
sisting of 16 members which had 800
Invested for each member of the fam
lily, and the interest was paid on all
Of the 16 claims regularly every week.
Miller's claims to make his abnormal
profit through speculation in Wall
street, though no evidence is forth
coming up to the present time to show
that he had ever speeulated in stocks