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Show oo "contracts arejllegal Department of Justice Uncovers Uncov-ers Fraudulent Transactions Involving Huge Sums. WASHINGTON, April 23. Attorney General Palmer announced today that investigation by the department of Justice Jus-tice of alleged fraudulent war contracts con-tracts had "uncovered Illegal transactions transac-tions Involving millions of dollars," and that through civil and criminal prosecutions now completed or under as ay, large sums would be saved for the I government. "Questionable vouchers unearthed in one class of contracts alone have resulted re-sulted in the withholding of payments "t the government amounting to ap-i ap-i proximately 54,420,000," the depart-' depart-' ment declared In a statement "These contracts have been under investigation investiga-tion for months and they affect a very restricted area. Reports to the department de-partment indicate that as a result of Indictments already, returned aga!nst fifteen defendants in the northern Pacific Pa-cific division at Seattle about $150,000 will bo recovered from shipbuilders and former representatives of the United States shipping board, emergency emerg-ency fleet corporation In that section. Similar cases in tho same district Involving In-volving approximately $265,000 will be preEented to grand juries within the next few days. "The bureau of Investigation of the department now has before It fifteen largo fraud cases In which special investigations in-vestigations have been ordered. All of these involve large sums. One of them which is now being prepared for presentation pre-sentation to the grand jury in Ohio, Involves In-volves $325,000,". |