The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-11-25
NAPOLEON or FINANCE
Indicted For Conspiracy to Defraud
in Brooklyn.
BUT HE Is AMONG TIE MISSING.

i
| The "Franklin Syndicate" Had inst
Assigned to Ex-sherifr Daily when
the Police Raided the Place and Cap
| tured Cash In Sight and Some Hidden
Brooklyn, Nov. 25.-William F..
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 $40 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 a
| great crowd of people around the build
ing, and the police surrounded 1t. In
epector 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 60. 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 1t has been only within the
last month that by extensive adver-
Using in one way or another he has
managed to attract to his Office hum
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 number of those
around the Offices were waiting to de-
post money with the Franklin syndi-
cate.
The presence Of the police caused
great excitement. When they entered
the Office they were informed that at
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 were the
assignees now, and put Daley off the
premises. Daley has been in the en-
ploy Of Miller for some time past
OF the $4,000 taken possession OF
by the police something more than S.
900 In cash was found in the syndicate
Offices. From the record which the
police had made of yesterdays de-
posits 1t was evident that 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
employee 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 ad-
Joining house, where they placed Miss
Cory under arrest, and after an ex-
tended search they found nearly $4,000
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 paying 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 very small way. locat-
ing offices among the poorer classes In
the borough of Brooklyn, and making
one 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 large
percentage to his clients. It Is claimed
that Miller was simply the represent
alive of a syndicate of men who had
been engaged in conducting blind
pools for years.
It is said that within the last week
Miller had received deposits of hun
dreds of people, aggregating daily
amount from sac, 1000 to $4,000. 1t Ia
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 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
Is impossible to even estimate where
the endless chain" would have ended.
One of Millers 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
rs weeks. he found himself with a
credit of $1,029. AS Miller absolutely
refused to carry accounts of more than
81 900 this customer was compelled to
reinvest in the names Of other men,
bers of his family. A police official
said that he knew Of 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 speculated in stocks
to any extent. His clerks and employ
es from time to time threw out hints
of inside information which Miller,