New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-04
Food Swindles
Melted Berlin
Widow S750,OOO
Frau Meta Kupfer Proves
Cassie Chadwick, of
Germany

Berlin. March 3.-Germany now has
its Cassie Chadwick. its Nine. Humbert
case The latest rival 70 these women
Of international notoriety is Frau Meta
Kupfer. an attractive widow OF forty
one. With a capital consisting o.
plentv Of nerve, an attractive daugh-
ter. plenty of good looks herself. law
ISL hospitality in these lean war times,
End an unduly keen insight into the
cullibility of mankind, she had har-
vested lust under three millions OF
marks or about s75O,000 up to the
time of her arrest and confession.
Her plan of procedure was the old,
old one-borrowed from 1920 Per Cent
Miller" She has been paying u per
cent a month interest on money IN
vested" with her. And each investor
has put in his or her money with inc
knowledge that the enormous prohts
must come from Illegal methods, ana AT
the expense of an overcharged pubic
Therefore. Germany. finally awake TO
the swindle, is inclined 10 have more
sympathv with Frau Kupfer, now Ian
gushing in Jail, than with. her invest
ors who are said to include wealthy
though greedy capitalists, wen known
men. officers among them, all OF whom
are DONG thclI DtSI ~ hNNP wv - "
limelight
Frau Kupfer began her operations
on a modest and apparently a legitl-
mate scale when, year and half ago,
she moved 20 Berlin and began TO trade
i'm the then almost unrestricted food
stuFs. But the money did not come IN
as fast as the opportunities to get
money from investors who wanted to
,o.Lo bicr nrOiItg quickly.
FORCES Bills of Lading
So Frau Kupfer began TO forge a
few bills Of ladng and the few neces-
sarv official looking seals, opened a
moro pretantious office, launched the
business" in her daughters name -
since she was on the court records as
a bankrupt-and sat down TO wait Tor
She represented to the investors that
her warehouses for food were IN city
100 miles from Berlin, and so charm
inglv did she recite the story that no
one thought to verify the matter until
an investigator revealed the "nole
swindlc. f-
A. the money poured in Frau kupier
had 10 increase the number OF her BANK
accounts, until she had six large banks
accepting her deposits. She rented a
pretty, though modest, apartment IN
the west end Of Berlin, where she en-
tcrtaincd the more favored of the in
vegtors. The daughter came in handy,
too, for her great beauty acted as a
quictus on all embarrassing questions.
Managed 10 Get Food
Somehow, Frau Kupfer managed TO
get a not inconsiderable portion Of the
food which was supposed 10 make up
her business, for she nightly gave ban
qucts. at which nothing was lacking.
The entertainments were never so
noisy as 10 enrage the neighborhood,
but they often lasted until 9 o'clock in
the morning. Yet Frau Kupfer was at
her Office by . fresh and ready for any
thing, whether IL be new investments,
demands for the return Of old ones or
the payment Of the monthly interest"
She kept no books, but slowed away IN
her head all her financial transactions,
with the exception Of receipts for pay
ments
The eventual arrival Of the police
found her with her daughter and one
man, an investor admirer. On the heels
Of the police came creditors who wanted
their money back. She made an sp-
pointmcnt with her creditors for the
same afternoon NJ Beriin's largest bank,
then walked out with the plain clothes
men, whose identity the creditors had
not discovered.
Cleared a Fortune
The police investigation revealed:
That Frau Kupfer had taken in between
two and half and three million marks,
most Of IL recently; that her daughter.
rominally the head Of the COMPANY
knew little about the matter; that
many CREDITOR had drawn out all they
had ever put in and much more by way