The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-06-20
City Auditor
 Shows Method Used By Smith
Shortage Taken from s m a II Taxpayers L ater Replaced by Checks from Big Con- CernS.

City Auditor Bernard F. Heating
 submitted a report in detail last night
 to the Common Council showing that
 the former tax collector Of this city,
 Howard F. Smith, now wanted by the police, frequently IsazalaSoulaced the tax moneys and entries osa the tax books in his many acts of es1abeZ2eI1ent which resulted in the SSS,S00>GS> He also made several attempts to con- cea1 the d5scTSpanc5es 5s, the books
 More than a score Of names of tax payers who made paSmeEts of from
 Sz9o approximately / to $. G0O> were cited in the suditor's report. the cor books and lesser amounts s'3bst1tlIf- ed The report also shovrs 5ngg7g1i,ag with certificates of error and abace- Restored by Big Checks
 That smith took coIaosaEza5lVeiy small amounts from the tax payers ' indicated in Auditor Seating's re- Sume of the case La1er on, per laps a short time before the last the Remington Arms company and the Bridgeport Brass company
 se Ine f GeosS S 4 for Si'ss S sooSs Sr Ts Ths sResnington Arms company and a tcAeck for S6S,SSe>T7 sent in og the dgapore Brasa company was en- Sse,79,
 'EJuue 1s, 1922, s-Tyo the Honorable Common Council Of the City of Bridgeport
 ~Gent1eInen-The City Auditor re- respectfully reports relative to the ac- counts of Howard F, Smith. as Col actor of Taxes, osa list of 1920, as fol- 1owsc
 This list was placed in his hands as collector, and was due and paya- s1Ie on April l. 192l- The Collector made monthly reports to me, of the accounts collected by him on said QiS1 from April l. 1921. to November fl, 1921 the latter date being the expiration of his term of office. Such monthly reports weres each month, audited by me. compared with the amounts paid by the Collector to the Treasurer, and also with the amounts f entered on the Collectors cash reg lister. and all three were found to s9correspond-
 s1The general audit now made by me, confirms in this respect, the emonthly audits, previously made, and shows that the Collector has fully accounted for all amounts shown and entered on his daily cash register. teThe Collector has failed, however, scheck for $6o, ,30G,oS, received by him Ion May End. 921, from The Reming- ton Arms company, Inc, for payment of the company's semi-annual tax, due and payable on that date, and he has also made an erroneous entry on said register of the senni-annual en- try said register of the semi-an- nual tax paid by The Bridgeport Brass company on October 1st, 1921.
 ''The amount paid by the company
 was $6S, the amount entered on the register was S4S, SCOTT or S25,- 900 less than the sum paid. I have personally investigated and verified both of those payments, at the origt- nal sources of information, the offices of the companies. respectively, and satisfied myself that both the fore going payments were made in full, as above specified.
 ''The tax stub, Sh owing payment of Remington Arms Company, Inc, tax was missing from the files at the time of the monthly audit, but has since been found, out of it's proper place, where it had evidently been placed subsequently.
 f@The entry on the Collectors cash register of the amount paid by The Bridgeport Brass company shows evi- ~dence of having been bampered with and changed from the original post ing. whatever that was.
 '1 find that eraSures have been pretty carefully and thoroughly made, l apparently by the use of acids, in the Rate Book. of amounts aggregating 1 S7S,O6S.S0, as shown in the following list:
 CRegister and Rate Book page numbers have been omitted.)