The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-25
THE WAY TO STEAL 100000
SHORTAGE DISCOVERED DURING
BANK EXAMINER HANNA,s Ex
ANIMATION OCT 16
FOR LONG SERIES OF YEARS
Had His DefaIcattons Been Kept Up.
His Access to the Banks
Mail Enabling Him to
Make Good.

WASHINGTON, Oct 24-T. p. Kana.
the acting comptroller of the currency.
To-Day gave out the following statement
. regarding the defa1cation in the First
National Bank of New York
During the progress of examina ton
py Bank Examiner Hanna, Oct 10, of the
FIRST National bank, Assistant Cashier
Backus discovered that the note and ex-
change teller Alvord, was short in his
cash to an amount which has since been
found to be $3.50, 600
Z. His thefts have been going on for a
long time. The plan of conceaIing them
and making the cash on hand agree with
the amount for which he was account
able, as shown by the books, was to
take out Of the morning mail, of which
ne was IN charge, a sufficient number of
cash items to cover the aggregate
amount of his defalcation and add them
to the exchanges for the clearing house
received during the preceding day. The
examination of the books at the time
of examination showed the total amount
correct, but $690,0O0 of the items had been
taken from the morning receipts and
listed with previous days exchanges.
the amount Of morning additions being
reduced that much, so that the sum ag-
gregated the correct amount Exchange
In the slip by Alvord later in the day
caused inquiry and comparison to be
made at the clearing house, when It was
discovered that the two items of pre-
Y1ons days exchanges and morning adj
d1tions did not correspond with the list
checked by the examiner and a count
of the current days cash and checks IN
the hands of the third teller revealed a
shortage of s690,090 The shortage seems
| to have been about 100000 two years
/ ago, and has been increased gradually
since that time, the teller concealing
the same in the morning additions
| There is no way to have check
on the morning additions to the ex-
changes, except by counting the note,
/ teller's cash and checks twice, or to be-
/ gin examinations Of cash in sthe even-
| ing, which is otherwise Objectionable
BANKS CAPITAL UNIMPIARBD.
The hank has charged out the amount
| of the shortage without inpairing It's
surplus or undivided profits account.
I "A further examination of AFSord's ac-
counts by the officers of the banlS shows
that his stealings have been going on for
| several years. Fourteen months ago he
| took a two weeks vacation and an ex-
animation Of his tickets preceding his
| going and after his return shows that no
! covered his shortage while absent by
making number of charges to out-os-
town accounts, and credited back the
amounts on his return before the monthly
statements were sent out. The amount
| Of his shortage at various periods in the
| past seems to have gone up and down,
| and it is probable this is due to the fact
that whenever he had reason to expect
| any investigation of his cash or a per-
! iodica1 visit from the examiner he would
| doctor it, by means of those false charges
| against large accounts. In the present
| instances the examiner went into the
bank a month ahead of the usual six
| month period, the last preceding exam
ination having been May 15, 1900, and this
unexpected visit prevented a maninula-
ton of figures by Alvord and lead to a
discovery OF the defalcation.
| This theft could probably have been
prevented by rotation of the clerical
force of the bank thus placing each de-
partment under the supervision of differ
| ent persons successfully.
There is no way to accurately check
| the accounts of an employe If he has, ac-
cess to the succeeding days cash frcm
which to make good his shortage of the
current day, (and this is what AIvord al
ways hadl and he had also the opportun-
fly to hold back creditors for longer
time than the day on which the letters
enclosing items are received