The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-07-30

EUSOU SuduGu GO P O , defective war supplies. Raw mater ials furnished on government pri- ority for war production are divert ed into commercial channels.
 Not all these defrauders get caught. Unlike big fish, you never hear about the ones that get away. But in many of the fraud cases a patriotic secretary with sweetie at the front won't like what the boss is trying to get away with and will report the skull-druggery to the FBI.
 Or maybe it will be vindicative cuss who is cheated out of what he considers a fair share of the gravy and squeals on his pals. Or g. bid- der who loses contract will reveal how fraud beat him out Or some body's conscience will bite him. Or Army and Navy inspectors will catch the crooks red-handed. Or Congressional committees will un- cover dirt which is passed on to the Department of Justice for prosecu- tion.
 A NEW FIELD
 EOk SLE 1AlNG
 When reports like these come in, they are first investigated by the FBI, then turned over to the War Frauds section of the Justice De- partment. Over the past four years the department for U. S. war crim- inals. Today it is preparing to move in on frauds uncovered in the bus mess of winding up the war effort, canceling contracts and disposing of SurpluSeS.
 The War Frauds section is small, with some 20 lawyers in Washing ton and another 50 in the field. But they have the help of 6 U. S. dis trict attorneys and the FBI investi- gators. Tom c. Clark, new attorney general, was head of the War Frauds section when it was first or ganized. John Darsey, who joined the section with Clark in the spring of 1942, heads up the work today.
 The result of all this activity, prosecuting war frauds while they're still fresh instead of waiting to clean house after the war is over, is that World War II will have rec- ord of less fraud and more war criminals caught than any other war in U. s. history. In the last war, most of the profiteers and perpetra- tors of war frauds got away because no prosecutions were begun until after the war was over. In the general public postwar apathy only 37 indictments against war crim- inals were obtained and only two were convicted.
 The government contractor who deliberately tries to commit crim- inal fraud is, of course, the excep- ton today. Out of the millions of war contracts let and out of the millions of citizens now on govern ment payrolls, only small fraction of per cent shows evidence of fraud.
 96O0 COMPLAINTS RECEIVED
 The war record to date reveals 9600 complaints of fraud referred to the Justic Department. Of these cases, 7700 Investigations have been completed and in 1160-roughly one case in seven-suff1cient evidence was found to file criminal indict- ments charging fraud. These in- dictments involved 1,250 individuals and 95 corporations.
 In the cases disposed of, over half of the accused plead guilty 623 individuals and 46 corporations. In the cases that went to trial, 153 individuals and 13 corporations were convicted.
 Among the more sensational cases in which convictions were obtained are Anaconda Wire and Copper, for furnishing defective. signal corps wire; Antonelli Fireworks Co. of New York, for underloading bombs and grenades with explosives; Sam pei Dunckel and Go. of New York, for furnishing 650,0o0 pounds of defective dried eggs at a dollar a pound; Sullivan Dry Dock of Brook lyn, for making false claims on re- pair of ships.
 The War Frauds section has a record of better than 90 per cent convictions on cases brought to trial. And after criminal guilt has been established, the Claims Divi- sion of the Department of Justice moves in to recover some of the money Uncle Sam got cheated out of.