Los Angeles herald., 1910-12-28
Institution in New York with De-
posts of Nearly Seven
Millions Closed
CHARGES OF IRREGULARITIES
Chairman of Executive Commit
tee in Sanitarium After Re-
ported Suicide Attempt
Associated Pressl

NEW YORK, Dec. 27.-The North
ern bank of New York, with deposits
in it's nine branches of $6,9125S2 at the
time of it's last published statement,
was closed today by o. II. Cheney,
benefit of the depositors," because of
certain conditions" and also certain
irregular transactions"
An inventory of the banks assets and
liabilities is now under way, but until
it is completed no further statement
from superintendent Cheney will be
available. w. Fl. Hotchkiss, state SUI
perintendent of insurance, and District
Attorney Whitman are cooperating
with him. They hope to present the
facts to the grand jury tomorrow.
Joseph q. Robin, chairman of the
executive committee, and a sharehold-
er and director in many other corpor-
ations, is in a private Sanitarium at
Central Valley, n. Y, to which he was
committed last Saturday by Justice
Amend of the state supreme court at
the request of his sister.
SUICIDE ATTEMPT REPORTED
James II. Clifford of counsel for the
bank and one of it's directors, an
nounced tonight that physicians had
diagnosed the case as acute paranoia.
Robin tried to kill himself in his apart
ments last Saturday night, but was
restrained by a nurse, according to Mr..
Clifford.
The relations of the Aetna with the
Northern bank, ,and of both with the
Title and Guarantee company of
Rochester form the subject matter of a
long statement by Superintendent
Hotchkiss. 1t follows, in part.
Joseph G. Robin was in March last
the controlling stockholder of the
Aetna Indemnity company and appar-
emily of the Northern bank of New
York One of the chief assets of the
Aetna Indemnity company Ia Connec-
ticut corporation in no way related to
the Aetna Fire Insurance company
was, according to the statement of
December 81, 1909, 1900 shares, or the
entire issue, of the corporate stock OF
the Title and Guarantee company of
Rochester.
THE latter is a New York insur-
ance corporation authorized to do a
fidelity and a title guarantee business.
This corporation mad, however, been
dormant for some time. A lease of its
little plant to a Rochester abstract
company produced an income which,
in addition to it's other assets, gave
the stockholders a value of $169000 out
of the total assets of the Aetna COM
pany of approximately $1,000,000
"Coincident with an increase in the
capital stock of the Aetna Indemnity
company last spring Robin seems to
have opened negotiations for the pur-
chase from 1t of the Rochester COM
pany. About that time both companies
elected new officers, former Superin-
tendent Kelsey (Otto H. kelsey of
the state insurance department be-
coming president of both
1T appears that shortly prior to this
time Robin, as one of the witnesses
said, had stated that he would pur-
chase from the Aetna the stock of the
title and guarantee company. On the
strength of this statement-for there
was no contract until October, 1910
the assets of the Rochester company
were turned over to him on March 81,
and without the knowledge of Presi-
dent Kelsey or other officers of the
two interested insurance companies
disposed of and manipulated as Robin
dirapte6