The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-21

rorSeEst DIeu fouE HeehS ASp- Member of Philadelphia Stock Ex- change and Prominent in Financial CircIes-Certificates Calling for Small Numbers os Shares Raised to Hun dreds of Shares--Certnin Banks and
 Trust Companies Lose from $75O,0O0 to s1.OOO.O0O. :< Philadelphia, June 20. One of the
 most sensational cases of forgery that
 has ever been brought to light in finan- cial circles of this city was disclosed to-day when it was announced that eer-
 tificates calling for small numbers of shares of stock had been fraudulently raised to hundreds of shares causing a
 loss to certain banks and trust cona-
 panies of this city of from s750,000 to
 $1,000,000. The forgery involves the
 name of Benjamin H. Gaskill, who
 went to his grave four weeks ago. Cas-
 kill was the sole member of the bank ing and brokerage concern known as
 Benjamin E. Gaskill & Co. He had
 offices in the financial district and his credit was considered gilt-edged.
 Gaskill died about four weeks ago
 and at the time of his death he was
 believed to be worth about half q mill
 lion dollars. He left no will and ad- ministrators began to close up his bus mess. A patron of the firm, whose
 name is not given, bought from the | estate 100 shares of Philadelphia Trae- ton company, stock and 100 shares of stock of the United States Steel cor
 poration. He turned his account over
 to F, c. Miller & Co.,, which firm sent the 100 shares of traction stock to the
 Philadelphia Traction company's office to have the transfer recorded. The cer- tif1cate did not agree with the com pany's books, and an investigation showed that the certifica te had been raised from six shares to 100. The dis covery was reported to E. c. Miller & 1 Co, which firm immediately notified the stock exchange of which Gaskill was a member, which in turn sent out notices l to its members not to receive stock cer- tiaeates from the Gaskill estate.
 l A further investigation brought to light a surprising state of affairs. It was found that Gaskill had credited himself on his own books with 6,O00 shares of Philadelphia Traction stock valued at approximately $S00000, while 1 the traction, conapany's books showed he had only 400 shares. It was also dis- I covered that he had raised stock cer- 1 tificates of the United Railways of New Jersey from two to 200 and the certi- 1 ficates of the Frankford & Southwark Street Railway company of this city l from 2 to 20. The latter stock is worth 1 S450 share. l Gaskill kept two accounts-one re- 1 cording the transactions of his custom 1 CTS which was correct, and another giv- l ing his own transactions. His books
 showed that he was losing from $15, 900
 to S25000 year in his business. His
 method of operation was to obtain cer- 1 tificates of gilt-edged securities calling 1 for one, two, three or some other small number of shares, raise the figures and | give them as securities for large loans 1 At least six banks and trust companies of this city admit having fraudulent se- curities for large loans. Not one of the institutions will make public the amount of money they advanced, but a financier who has been making an l investigation said tonight the amount of money loaned on the raised certifi-
 cates will aggregate between S750,0 ,0Go
 and $1,0o0,0oo. It is believed that very I little will be recovered from the estate. Gaslkill was about forty-one years old
 wheE he died. He was a member of the Manufacturers and other clubs and we'll and favorably known. (Gasl1ill left a wife, to whom the stock
 exchange few days ago paid $5,000 as l life insurance. His seat on the Stock exchange is valued at 5,(10.