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Show Bank Accepted Deposits When Insolvent, Is Charge : 7 MM puiir Stories Involving Offi-" Offi-" cials of the Merchants Bank in Questionable Transactions Current By Ira C. Tichenor THE arorptanrp of deposits by a bank whose offirials are aware that the insl itut in is insolvent in-solvent i a criminal offense. It is declared , that the preliminary pre-liminary report of the receiver, now on fll with the clerk of court, plainly Indicate that the Merchants bank wa insolvent on July 9, the day the institution insti-tution was ordered closed by the court. Should Ita insolvency nn that day be proved a fart, it la declared that it will be a very easy matter to prove the acceptance of deposits', while the bank was In that condition. , - EVEN AFTER BANKING HOURS. Aa a matter of fact, testimony will be offered, it is stated, showing; that . at least in one Instance the hank 1 V official kindly accepted a deposit aa lmtm " 4 o'clock on Monday after- noon, July ft, or an hour after the I usual time for closing, and when the! officials are supposed at that time to have been busy checking; up the accounts In anticipation of stepping out of the institution permanently, or at leaat pending a reorganisation. The name of the man who, it Is stated, la ready to swear to the event is known to The Telegram, but It la withheld for the present. The amount be deposited at 4 o'clock July ft. as ha states, was $Sftn, which he received In caah during the afternoon and with which he hate?ied to the bank in fear nf Tobtiery rhrrtroc to rrfirtn should he take the money home with him. Thla la declared to be only one of many instances in which deposits were made during the afternoon of July ft, and which tiave been ascertained by a committee working in behalf of the depositors, which will turn over the data to the district attorney to be used at- the trial of any officials of the bark whose indictment may be returned by the grand Jury calleo! to assemble two weeks from today. PAY CHECKS COME BACK. Among the incidents are several con- earning commercial houses which did business with the Merchant a bank. The heads of such house will swear that they made deposits on July 1. ' after having given checks to employes! for the previous week's work, only to kav these checks returned unpaid. Tn one case It in stated that a customer cus-tomer who had several thousand dollars dol-lars on deposit made a deposit of nearly near-ly $500 on Monday afternoon Just before be-fore the bank closed. In addition, he states that he had a check for a comparatively com-paratively small amount and which, for a reason of his own. he desired to caah and not have credited to his account. ac-count. He waa refused a cash payment, pay-ment, he Hates, on the ground that the maker of the check did not have a sufficient balance to cover th amount, L which reason, the depositor declares, sliBlater proved to be untrue. QUIET INVESTIGATIONS. Various transactions. large and small. In which some officisls of the bank are said to he involved Immediately Imme-diately previous to the closing of the hank, are being Investigated in a q uet Vniinued on page fcJ QUEER DEALS - - -4ottinHed from png wav. with the object of eupplying the district attorney with material fur his work of exected prosecution. Among theae reported transactions waa the purchase of a mining property, the Investment In stock of a foreign corporation and the purchase of a handsome residence and grouiula. Also there la a report m circulation that the cash balance 01 a mining company was, unknown to the officials of the concern, lowered by $10,000 on the day previous to the closing of the bank, and that Inter a bunch of securities secur-ities of various kinds was presented to the president of the mining company to cover the amount. Another Interesting report Is that an outside biink waa a creditor to the ex-j ex-j tent of approximately $3'..000 on the j last day the Merchants bank was open I for business, but that tne creuit bal- snc Inter was found to have been a I -! moat offset by certain securities re-I re-I ported to hae been delivered after J banking hours. 1 It is stated that some of the various 1 reiMjrted transactions will le the hass j of suits in the future. Just et prrs-nt J the receiver Is reported to le vigor-I vigor-I ously engairod in enforcing the pay-I pay-I nif nt of rMcli by those under -rapidly I collectible obligation to the bank, and i that thus far he haa been so successful I that a dividend of 21 per cent ia assured as-sured and which may be Increased to 30 per cent, to he paid within the next thirty or forty days. |