The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1917-07-10
Lionel HART UNDER
ARREST ON COAST
Amount EmbezzIed variously Es-
timated At From Thirty To One
Hundred Thousand Dollars

| ~ SN"'o "So, Wncn Lionel Hart
was quietly requested to vacate the of.
ices he occupied above those of the
G. M. Cooke Estate, Ltd, The Adyer.
tiser informed the public that the next
thieving bank clerk who wanted "a
gamble in stocks would have to look
for him in new quarters. ...
Then there came time when many,
many customers looked for him lin
many, many quarters, and found him
nowhere. He is receiving visitors to-
day in Jail, at San Francisco. Yester.
day the wireless brought news Of his
arrest. - =
just how much money he lost in his
own speeulations on the New York
market and how much he Transferred
TO the account of his travelling expen.
ses when he closed his Office here and
He'd TO the Orient early this wear. il
spli matter of surmise 20 ali except
those who Strengthened out his books
for Charles A. StOneham & Co, of New
York, the brokerage house he repre-
scented. The city attorney is reported
yesterday to have asked the grand jury
Tor an indictment charging him with
embezzlement of approximately $40, 900.
On the street, the amount has been
varionsly estimated all the way from
thirty to one hundred thousand dollars,
Shortly before Hart disappeared, he
married Miss Juanita Beckiey. Thew
lett together for the China coast. Earl.
ier in the week Mrs. Hart passed
through Honolulu, bound for San Fran.
cisco, on the Nippon Maru. Question
ed by the police she asserted that she
did not know her husband 3 where
abouts. He is supposed to have steam
cd for Vancouver by the Canadian
Pacific. route from Yokohama, and from
Vancouver to have gone south to San
Francisco to meet his wife. She is still
at sea. .a
The .audacity and stcely nerve of
Hart long have been the wonder of the
town, In the days when all kerosene,
gasoline and other infammable Iiu,rids
we're stored in the government ware
house, Hart was the keeper. He sold
large quantities of the stock at cut
rate prices to Oriental merchants and
transferred the cash to his own pocket.
When exposure became inevitable, he
drove down to the warehouse in broad
day light and set the place on FIRE,
after having prepared sham evidence
70 make it appear that burglary had
been committed. ~ -. {
IF his preparations had been as care
full as they were bold, and both his
books and the entire stock of inham-
mables had gone up in smoke, it would
have been impossible to have convicted
him of any embezzlement. He was as
hasty, however, as he was desperate;
the fire didn I take hold as il should
have done; he was arrested, convicted
of arson, sentenced to Jail and served
his time. g. /
A free man again, he dug up enough
hidden cash to establish himself with
very little delay as a broker in wild
eat stocks and, to the unending aston
ishment of the town, he found CUSTOM
ors and kept getting more of them. Al
the time when he went under he was
doing a roaring business.
Nothing disturbed Hart's outward
serenity or shook his nerve. At tho
time of his election by the Cooke
Estate, a humiliation that would have
driven another man out of business, he
came back the next morning with full
page advertisement accusing hirel
ling press of attempting to twist the
facts to his dscredit and affirming that
he had just as good right to do specut
lative business with a bank teller as
anybody else. ....
Within forty-eight hours he had
larger Offices, with flowers in the VIM
dows and a string of waiting custom.
ers outside the door.