Smyrna times., 1932-09-28
THE SECRET LIFE
OF WAR KREUGER
Worlds Greatest Swindler
Lived as a Libertine in
City of Paris
AMASSED S16S,OOO,OOO

New York.-While big Chicago
and New York banks are trying to
recover millions of dollars they lost
backing Ivar kreuger, Swedish
financial wizard and the worlds
greatest swindler, facts have come
to light revealing his private life in
New York, Paris and elsewhere as
that of a libertine who lived secret
ly in gayety as he lived openly as
a hard-headed financial genius.
1t has been found that he had the
staggering sum Of $16S,OOO,OOO in
personal debt and indirect liability
against his name when he commit
ted suicide in Paris in March. 1t
has been discovered that his books
were falsified for eight years while
he was travelling around the finan-
ciaI centers Of the world raising
enormous sums from the most as
tute bankers.
There will be little or nothing for
unsecured creditors, and scores Of
millions handled by him appear now
to be irretrievably lost.
Once a demigod to a hero-wor-
shipping world, the silent, dominat-
ing financier has been proved to
possess all the frailties Of pleasure
loving mortals. The illusion that
he lived only to work, which he
cultivated so that he might juggle
millions by forgery and bargaining,
has been exploded in an astound-
ing expose of his bluff.
Purchased Secrecy.
Always the millions he was able
to display enabled Kreuger to pur-
chase the secrecy of the woman
who visited his secret hideaways.
And yet in the years during
which Kreuger fitted from country
to country, from continent to con-
tinent, not one of his women COM
panions during his lifetime gave
the least public hint Of associations
that seldom acquired the dignity Of
true companionship.
Out of the dust and confusion of
the crash that follower Kreuger's
suicide, a picture Of the man has
emerged. Each day the outline
grows bolder, more details are
filed in. The spectral figures loom
against a variety Of amazing back.
ground:
Kreuger on a little island of
Sweden for weeks at a time, sur
rounded by gay women. sparkling
champagne, soft lights, seductive
music.
Kreuger in a New York pent-
house, or in his Paris mansion, with
his women, his wine and his prince
1y luxury.
a scornfully smiling Kreuger
making rubber stamps of the sigma
lures of the influential men OF
Sweden so that he might forge their
names to applications for security
issues.
A calculating Kreuger with plate
and acid turning out bogus issues
OF Italian government bonds to de
fraud the trusting Swedish govern
ment or the trusting security buy.
ers Of the United States.
Directly after his death reports
OF Kreuger's trickery were broad
cast to the world. One was that the
Swedish consul in Paris had re
fused to certify the death; that
wax figure and not Kreuger was
cremated; that orders were still
coming from Sumatra for cigars
such as only Kreuger smoked.
investigators Surprised.
Intimates Of the Swedish Croesus
now recall that they did consider
it strange that after a day Of con.
ference, Of hard work, Kreuger in.
variably vanished and never a word
of how he spent his evening was
Forthcoming. But they never asked
for explanations. They knew the
But it is concerning the evenings
of his life, after his juggling of
finances was temporarily ended.
when he retired to meet this OF
that beautiful woman, that the real
facts are just now coming to the
surface.
One of the Swedish investigators
of Kreuger's business and private
conduct has said:
'We are going from one surprise
to another. The more definite our
investigations become, the stranger
the personality of Kreuger grows.
We all knew him personally, but we
are only discovering him now"
The investigators have learned
that there were many parties with
women and wine on the little Swed- |
fish island that Kreuger owned.
Not wild parties-there was moth
ing Of the vulgarian about Kreuger. !
The women were cultured and re-
fined.
In his Park avenue penthouse In |
New York and in his Paris mansion |
Kreuger gave similar parties. |
quiet informal affairs; never orgies. |
But refined outwardly as the
match kings women friends ap-
peared TO be. the Swedish police |