M. Pernotte was not arrested for his share in the failure of the Banque Industrielle but for a transaction carried out in another capacity. The Societe Alsacienre de Produits Chimiques, which has its head office in Paris, in February of last year made a fresh issue of capital in the form of 130,000 shares of a nominal value of Fr. 100. M. Pernotte, who, in addition to his duties at the Banque Industrielle, managed a private financial syndicate, took the whole issue and passed it on to the Banque Industrielle, which sold the shares to customers at prices ranging freya Fr. 450 to 550. After all the shares had been sold, their market value steadily declined and is now about 88. A complaint was lodged by M. Bourcier, formerly director of the Cambodia Electricity and_ Waterworks Ca., not against M. Pernotte personally, whom he did not know, but against the whole directorate of the Banque Industrielle and any others concerned in the creation o: the Societe Alsacienne and the issue of its shares. According to M. Bourcier, he was persuaded by M. Andre Berthelot, president of the Banque Industrielle, to take up 20 of the shares, the issue price ut which he was told would be Fr. 250. He afterwards found his account debited at the rate of Fr. 450 a share. He also states that the new issue was entirely the work of the Banque Industrielle and that this establisnment kept all the money it received" for the shares. The examining magistrate, however, seemed to think that' the chief ' responsibility rested with M. Pernotte, for, after questioning him and going into the figure: with an expert accow: tant, the magistrate ordered M. Pernotte's arrest on a charges of fraud, and sent him off to prison forthwith. M. Pernotte, who is 48 Years of age, was originally intended for the Church. He took degrees in law, letters and science and was for some years a schoolmaster in England and Germany. He afterwards joined the staff of the Banque de ']'Indo-Chhine and was sent out to the East to start new branches. On his return to Paris, he joined with M. Charles Victor, a banker (arrested a year ago for swindling) in laying the foundations of the Banque Industrielle, which was his idea. He had already obtained the Pukow option from the Peking Government.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.