The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-09-12

dent of the Chemical National bank of an embezzeler and forger to the extel taken, the comptroller announced, fro and the bank has arranged to make go
 Capital and surplus of the bank, MT. Williams announced. were not impaired in the slightest degree by the alleged opera tions of Martindale. The statement says.
 Investigations recently made show that J. B. Martindale, the late president of the Chemical National bank of New York, who died in July, 1s17 was an embezzler and forger to the extent of about sS0o,- Ooo He had been president of the bank since December, 1910, and prior to that had been for 8 numbers of years its vice president
 BANK NOT INJURED
 The loss will not impair in the slightest degree the capital and surplus of the Chemical bank, which amounts at this time to s10,0OO, 900, but will be charged out of it's undivided profits, which at the present time amount to over Sl,oooopo, after charging of the $300,000.
 The suspicious of the banks officers were aroused while Martindale was ab- sent from the bank, i'll in a hospital, shortly before his death, and the em- bezzlement was discovered as result of an inquiry instituted by Vice President Ttwitchell, who was recently elected presi- dent of the bank to succeed Martindale. The money was not stolen directly from the bank, but was obtained by manipulat- ing the deposit account of a wealthy de- positor for whom Martindale acted as financial adviser and trusted agent Under President Martindales instructions the statements of this depositor's account W ere rendered by the bank periodically to Martindale instead of direct to the de- positor, and Martindale then manipulated and changed them before submitting them to the depositor.
 METHOD OF BANK FER
 The method by which Martindale ob- tained most of the money was by with drawing money from the depositors ac- count, either through forged check or by debit slip signed by himself as president. He would present these checks for $J50C or $l0,OOO, or whatever the amount mnght be, to the bank teller personally. explaining that the depositor had asked him to draw this money from the ac- count for donation to some hospital so that the name Of the donor might not be known, or that the depositor desired the matter handled in this manner TOT some other plausible reason and he would then appropriate cash so withdrawn to his own uses.
 In explaining to the depositor at the end of each month these withdrawals, Martirdale's plan was to inform the un- suspocting depositer that he had placed the sums so withdrawn from the Chemical bank to the depositors s credit in certain trust company in New York city, one of which deposit or passbooks he had ob- tained and in which book he would enter in his own handwriting as deposits with the trust company the amounts of money which he had withdrawn from the Chemi- cal National bank through the means of the forged checks or debit slips
 FORGED NOTES
 He also forged the depositor's name to certain demand notes to the extent of about ss0.0oo, which amount he also got from the Chemical bank and personally appropriated.
 The aggregate amount of the forged notes placed in the Chemical bank and the false credits shown on the deposit or pSsstook of, the trust company was about ssOo,ooo
 "such embezzlements and forgeries would have been practically impossible had they not been perpetrated by an of