The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-01-24
BIG STAMP FRAUD
UNEARIHED IN
NEW YORK
indictments Secured and More
Will Follow
OFFICIALS HAVE CONFESSIONS
Special Brokers in Large Cities Sold
Stolen Stamps for Less Than
Face Value.

Washington, Jan 24.-lllegal traf-
6cking the country over IN stolen
postage stamps, aggregating several
millions of dollars annually, has Just
been disclosed by post-ofiice inspec-
aors. whose Investigations were re-
sorted yesterday to Postmaster-Gen-
eral Hitchcock. They involved so
sailed stamp brokers and confidential
employees of large business concerns
throughout the United States.
Through confessions secured by the
inspectors from some of the brokers
whose operations. were investigated,
X was learned that stamps OF all
classes and denominations stolen by
Burglars fro post-offices and embez-
zied by employees from great business
houses and manufacturing establish
nents were purchased and resold by
the brokers at prices far below their
face value.
Stamp frauds against the govern
srent and various business concerns
aggregaung hundreds of thousands OF
dollars annually have been unearth-
ed in New York city alone, while il
legal trafficking in stamps in Boston,
y DdlAiillDltt L AAAobhA 81
Chicago, indianapolis, St. Louis, Min
neapolis, Cincinnati, New Orleans,
Kansas City. Denver, San Francisco.
Seattle, Portland, Or. and many 9th
er cities has reached large proper
tions
In New York approximately 20 so
called brokers make a business of
Duying postage stamps at a discount
ranging from 80 cents to 80 cents on
81 and selling them to merchants at
prices varying from IS cents TO SO
cents on 81, The stamps, it is said,
are obtained largely from office boys
and confidential employees, who en-
bezzle them from their employers.
One stamp broker in New York city
who sells from $500 to $1,000 worth of
stamps a day to merchants, it is al
legged, has been purchasing some of
his supply from an employee of the
New York state government at Al
bany. The employe confessed to post
office inspectors that he RENTED to
the stamp broker from S25 to $50 a
week in stamps stolen from the state.
One broker advertised by means of
a sign carried through the New York
financial district during the noon hour
that he purchased printed uncanceled
postcards. This resulted, it is said,
in many Office boys stealing cards
from their employers and selling
them to him for 80 cents per 100.
The printed portion if the cards then
was skilfully covered by the broker
with a piece of thin paper and the
cards resold. The culpable broker,
according to his admission to the in.
spectors, sold during the last Two
years more than 100000 postal
cards, many of which were stolen by
Office boys.
The department redeems postal
cards from original purchasers at rs
per cent of their face value. A few
weeks ago a member of Congress and
a former deputy commissioner of po-
lice of New York city requested the
third assistant postmaster-g general to
redeem over 100000 cards for a con-
stituent of the congressman. Inquiry
by inspectors developed the fast that
the cards were the property of a stamp
broker. whose business is declared by
the department officials to be clearly
illegitmate.