The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-02
CALMLY TELLS HOW HE FLEECED FRIENDS AND KIN Ex-Promoter Is Returned
 To Chicago For
 Trial POSSESSES SIP,
 SUIT OF CLOTHES Ready To Take Punish ment, He Tells Alt
 tOrney Grove
lRy Associated Press)

CHICAGO, Dec. IL. O.. Koretz, who fled from Chicago a year ago with a large DOT ton of the $2,O00,000 that friends, relatives and ac- quaintances had begged him to invest for them in a fake Panama oil scheme, returned today with 12 one-dollar bills in his pocket and the clothes he wore as his only assets.
 Tonight, sitting in the office Of States Attorney Grove, the promoter Of the Bayano oil bubble who was ar rested last week in Halifax, calmly related his method of promotion which caused the money to flow in so fast that he often took the cash of his friends and relatives under protest.
 Makes Full Confession
 Koretz, after making what the states attorney termed a clean breast of his operations, said he did not expect to interfere with the course of justice in any way.
 His dabbling in the fields of frenzied finance started IS years ago purely by accident, he said, and ended just q year ago after the Bayano oil stocks had skyrocketed to dizzy heights and fallen until they scarce represented the value of the paper on which the cer- tificates were printed.
 Many years ago, Koretz told Grove i; friend who lad performed sume serv. ice for the government of Panama was given some land there and succeeded in interesting Koretz, the latter induc- ing some of his friends to invest $10,- 900 in the project.
 Koretz said that soon he went to Panama and found he and his friends had bought swamp lands. He wanted his money back, he said, so he began selling portions of five million acres of wooded land which he did not own. The customers, however, were not read fly attracted, koretz told Grove, and in order to increase business, Koretz announced the discovery of oil,
 Made Rapid Progress
 At first his deals netted him only $1,000, he said, but with the "oil dis covery' they jumped to $5,OO0 and soon were coming in so fast that he found difficulty in keeping customers away. During his IS years of opera- tions, he said he took in only $2,O0O."
 He told the states attorney that he committed his first illegal act while he was practicing law without having been admitted to the bar when he sold a client a fake mortgage.
 He said he had made absolutely no plans to escape in case he were caught after he fled from Chicago.
 When his financial affairs here be- gan to look like they were nearing q crisis a year ago, he said, he went to New York and took an apartment on Forty eighth street where he used the name of Lou Keyte, the same alias under which he travelled in Halifax.
 Bought Bookstore
 The bookstore which he purchased in New York, he said, was bought for three purpOses-tO gratify desire for rare books, because he was not sat isfied without some business and to give him place of seclusion. He said that in Halifax folk considered him a traveller and writer, so he had decided to go to Honduras to keep up the decep- ton and divert any suspicion.
 He explained that all the money he had was now in the possession of the authorities to be used in paying his creditors. He said the money which poured in from his oil stocks was his only income, and added that he used some of this to pay interest on stocks held by other clients.
 He was not taken to jail but was al lowed to go to hotel for the night in the company of several detectives. Before going to the hotel he conferred briefly with two brothers, Adolph and Emil, and remarked that it was the first time he had communicated with any member of his family, including wife and mother, since he fled.
 Has Dramatic Reception
 J. P. Connolly, Halifax attorney, who came here from Nova Scotia with Koretz said he he would remain here and aid the father of the Bayano oil bubble throughout the proceedings against him here. Koretz was ac- corded dramatic, if not q hearty reception when he arrived here today with lawyers, detectives, assistant states attorneys and newspaper report CTS in his retinue. A crowd of 300 persons damned into the train shed and shouted at the decorated man who hustled through the throng while flash lights bOomed and cameras clicked.