Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1912 — Clever Russian Swindler [ARTICLE]

Clever Russian Swindler

He Got Insurance Money by Fraud— Now Bt. Petersburg Police Have Him In Custody. St Petersburg.—A widespread swlW die effected by fictitious life insurance operations has just been discovered by the St Petersburg police. The chief figure is Sigismund Poplavsky, son of an insurance agent He has owned frauds on the New York Life, the Urbaine and the Kertch Insurance companies., . Poplavsky received a 'high school education in his native town of Tiflis and started swindling parly. He got appointed to the traffic department of the Vladikavkag railroad and there sold six wagonloads of wheat belonging to a shipper. He was indicted and his mother balled him out giving him the title deeds of an estate she owned as security. He sold the bail security and hid in the Caucasus.

His first experiment in fraudulent life insurance was a dozen years ago. He insured himself with the Urbaine company for 15,000 rubles. The following year a very sick man presented himself at the Pskof office of the company, far away from where, the policy was taken out..and duly paid the premium. He showed all the passport identification documents of Poplavsky. ’ Soon the sick man, whose true name was Ivan Fedlounin, died,; and Poplavsky, who had taken the ottyTs identity, drew the insurance policy. Still keeping Fedlounin’s name he went to Narva and in a year had spent the money. Then in 1901 ho insured as Fodjounin with the New

York Life for 35,000 rubles and in the following year he took a man. from the hospital who was Incurably ill and equipped him with all the Feriounln papers. The dying man was installed in the apartment' of Poplavsky’s brother, where very soon he died. His real name is so far unknown, but he was buried as Fedlounin and once again Poplavsky got the insurance ffioney. \ Then Poplavsky married a young woman named Smurnoff and forthwith insured her with the Kertch company for 1,500 rubes. Soon he found a female patient in one of the SL Petersburg hospitals whose case Was hopeless. He was able to get her furnished with his wife’s civic papers, and when she died ,he collected his wife’s insurance money. She also was burled ln ( the name of Fedlounin. Then he settled in St Petersburg as Boleslav Kupinsky and' opened a timber business. He tried to insure with the Helsingfors company for 25,000 'rubles, as he now. admits, intending to repeat the swindle that had so far succeeded. But by this time he was being watched. a The police will exhume his and his wife’s doubles to try and learn how they died. They believe that he had several pupils, who worked the trick on other companies. The obligation tn Russia to produce passports and doeumena showing one’s antecedents really made the swindle easy, because the production of them had the effect of stopping the Inquiries that would b*vo followed ngtnral mpictou. ? V ■ ■ '■