The Paducah sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, 1906-01-10
MUCH FORGED STOCK
BEING UNCOVERED
N. wv. Certificates of No Value
Scattered Far and Wide.
Said to BE the Biggest Swindle Ex-
posed in Many Years In
This Country.
THE EXTENT is NOT KNOWN

New York, Jan. 10.-The Norfolk
and Western stock forgery, which on
Saturday was supposed to be piece
of ordinary crookedness In the finan-
cial world developed today in what
probably is one of the most gigantic
swindles of the age. The immensit,
of the fraud became known despite
the most stringent efforts to conceal
il, and Wall street stood aghast at
the knowledge of the crime that In
all probability has netted its perpe
traitor millions of dollars. and that
has worked false paper into the
strong boxes of nobody. knows how
many banks and trust companies
that even now do not know that the
Securities" on which they advanced
money are forgeries.
A report that the forgerles are the
work of a master forger. whose body
is supposed to be resting in a Boston
cemetery. but concerning whosC
death there has been always great
question. gained credence In the
street The Pinkertons would not de-
ny that they were working upon thi;
rheory, and the grave of the sup
posed dead man may be invaded.
Instead of there being only q few
hundred shares of the counterfeit
stock afloat IL is likely to run into
many thousands of shares. Shares
have been traced through the hands
OF several brokers in New York.
Philadelphia. Boston, Cleveland. Gin
einnati and Pittsburg. The New York
stock exchange and the officers of the
railroad company began today a de
tailed investigation in order to ind
all the counterfeited stock.
The New York Stock Exchange
has requested that banking houses
throughout the country examine
their holdings to ascertain II there
are any fraudulent Norfolk & West
ern certificates among them. Returns
from this examination will take
some days. II Is expected.
Information tends, it is said. to
show that the certificate originated
in Pittsburg. The certificate appears
to have been started there on a jour
ney which took It through brokerage
concerns in Cleveland and Boston to
this city.
According to the Guaranty Trust
company officials, the transfer agents,
il is the first successful attempt at
counterfeiting a certificate made with
all the skill of the expert manufac-
turers OF securities since the early
SOS.
Behind the plot. those acquainted
with all the facts firmly believe, there
will eventually be found a group of
persons equipped with money and in
genuity. At least one of these per,
sons was an expert photographer. An
other members of the group. they be-
lieve. was a man conyersant with the
New York Stock Exchange. and still
third person was one of sufficient
respectabillty and means to negotiate
with brokers.
That a group so constituted should
stop after successfully negotiating
one certificate, according to those
concerned in running the thing down,
is beyond belief.
As no attempt has been made TO
sell the stock. but as it has been put
up by the swindlers as collateral for
loans or for the purchase Of genuine
stock, It will be necessary, in order
to search out the extent of the fraud,
to have every bank and trust compa-
ny in the United States open it's loan
envelopes and scrutinize every GER
tificate of Norfolk and Western stock,
AS there are SOS, 100000 par of the
genuine stock afoat, the magnitude
of this task becomes evident. There
are hints of one trust company alone
which has nearly 100000 of Nor
folk and Western stock in one loan,
much of it supposed to be of the spu.
rious stun.