Here is the main point to bear in mind concerning the Tool,--the
sovereign power of seizure, search and confiscation brought into play
by our great Government without due process of law, was based in part
on the flimsy testimony of such a person. Thousands of investors
suffered from the blow, as well as myself and associates.
It would appear from the Roach statement that he was largely
instrumental in bringing about the crisis that resulted in the
suspension of the Simmonds firm and in the disclosures of the Special
Agent's relations therewith. These facts have become, in most
instances, matters of public record. They came out during the hearings
before the receiver for the bankrupt concern. It was found that the
liabilities of the "busted" firm were $85,000 and the assets 100 shares
of cheap mining stock and between $1,500 and $2,000 in cash. It was at
this conjunction that the Special Agent was allowed to resign from the
Department of Justice. The Tool he had foolishly used had proved to be
a two-edged one. The Agent had been "hoist by his own petard."
THE GUGGENHEIMS
Probably the most surprised branch of the Government at the time of the
Scheftels raid was the Post-Office Department. The crime charged was
misuse of the mails. Why, if the Scheftels aggregation were guilty,
didn't the Post-Office Department do the raiding? Why didn't it issue a
fraud order? The Scheftels company has since been declared solvent by
the courts and the temporary receiver discharged. To this day no fraud
order has been issued. Only a short period before the raid, a
presentation on the part of the Post-Office Department of all of the
evidence in the case had been met with a decision that there was no
ground for action.
That the Guggenheim interests did not fail to take advantage of the
plight of the House of Scheftels immediately after the raid finds
conclusive proof in the transpirations in the Ely mining camp. Soon
after the Special Agent descended on the Scheftels offices, an
application in Ely was made for a receiver to take charge of the assets
of the Ely Central Copper Company. The attorneys making the application
were Chandler & Quale, attorneys for the Nevada Consolidated Copper
Company, a Guggenheim enterprise. When the court appointed a receiver
he named this firm as attorneys for the receiver. Attorney J. M.
Lockhart for the Ely Central made a protest that these lawyers, because
of their connection with the Nevada Consolidated were not the proper
persons to protect the interests of the now defenseless Ely Central
stockholders. Then the court appointed another attorney, named Boreman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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