The victim naturally considers a further loan on such diamonds of $200
or $250 a desirable risk. The offer of 10 per cent or more interest on
the loan is another allurement which makes the transaction still more
desirable. The pawn broker recognizes his ticket, and the diamonds,
when redeemed, turn out to be worth considerably less than the amount
which the broker was supposed to have advanced on them. The victim
loses some more by redeeming the diamonds.
Complaints by such victims have been coming thick and fast into the
state's attorney's office in Chicago and other large cities. The
conspiracy between the swindler and his accomplice, the pawn broker,
is almost self-evident. In some instances indictments have been
returned against the perpetrators of the fraud, but the prosecution
could not succeed. The reason is obvious. On the face of the
transaction everything seemed to be regular, and the defendants could
not be made criminally responsible for an erroneous conclusion arrived
at by the victims as to the business sagacity of the pawn broker or
the probable value of the diamonds. And yet who would doubt, in view
of the many identical complaints, that the plans in connection with
the fraudulent transaction had been laid carefully in pursuance of a
conspiracy to defraud the public?