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1950 Preston Tucker not guilty...



Item # 667142

January 23, 1950

THE RUSSELL DAILY NEWS, Kansas, January 23, 1950

* Preston Tucker not guilty (1st report)
* Automobile designer & entrepreneur
* 1948 Tucker Sedan "Tucker Torpedo" fame


The front page has a one column heading: "Tucker Will Try to Re-organize Firm" with subhead: "Accused Cleared Of Fraud Charges" (see)
Four pages, a few larger size binding holes along the spine/1st column, otherwise nice.

wikipedia notes: In 1949, Preston Tucker surrendered his corporate records to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. United States Attorney Otto Kerner, Jr. began a grand jury investigation in February 1949. On March 3, 1949, a federal judge handed control of the Tucker Corporation over to Aaron J. Colnon an dJohn H. Schatz. Soon thereafter on June 10, 1949, Tucker and six other Tucker Corporation executives were indicted on 25 counts of mail fraud, five counts of violations of SEC regulations and one count of conspiracy to defraud. The indictment included 46-year-old Tucker, Harold A. Karsten, 58, "alias Abe Karatz"; Floyd D. Cerf, 61 (whose firm had handled the stock offering); Robert Pierce, 63; Fred Rockelman, 64; Mitchell W. Dulian, 50, Tucker sales manager; Otis Radford, 42, Tucker Corporation comptroller; and Cliff Knoble, 42, Tucker advertising manager. Tucker publicly called the charges "silly and ridiculous" and hailed the indictment as "an opportunity to explain our side of the story". Tucker and his colleagues' defense was handled by a team of attorneys led by William T. Kirby.

On January 22, 1950, after 28 hours of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty" on all counts for all accused. Tucker had prevailed at the trial, but the Tucker Corporation, now without a factory, buried in debt, and faced with numerous lawsuits from Tucker dealers angry about the production delays, was no more.

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Category: The 20th Century