OCR Text |
Show TO BRIBE I WITNESS I Former Employe of I Western Fuel Com- h pany Declares He Was - , Offered $50,000 to Vanish and Not Testi- fy For the Govern- j ment j San Francisco. Aug. 1. At a con- I, ference with the special counsel who t will prosecute the Western Fuel cases I- here this month, David G Powers, f formerly an employee of the com- I pany and now the chief witness for j the government said today that he j had been offered 150,000 if he would vanish. Powers gave the names of thoso ! who had approached him, and the j phraseology of the offers Matt I I Sullivan and Theodore J Roche, iu I charge of the case as assistants to the attorney general, declined to dis-cuse dis-cuse Power's story beyond saying j "We shall vigorously prosecute 6V- ery person connected with this immense im-mense fraud." i) The president and directors of the ll Western Fuel company arc charged I with having defrauded the govern- ment Oi customs duties aggregating F. nearly $1,000,000 by manipulating weighing sheets showing the tonnage I of imported coal. t The Western Fuel men can't be ll convicted." Powers said he was told. -'.mil you're a fool not to accept the j $L'(i,(iiio they are willing to give you to disappear Take what you can get and unit If $20,000 isn't enough. 1 tben i n be glad to make it $50. nun I You've got to look out for yourself.' I This is the second charge of cor- I nipt influence made since Indict-Stents Indict-Stents were returned. When John L. McNab resigned as United States at- j torney he charged in a sensational j letter to President Wilson that pres-,ur,. pres-,ur,. bad been brought to bear on Ut-irnev General McReynolds to or- j der ihe trials postponed. on |