Word: bishirgian
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Years ago an astounding character named Garabed Bishirgian emerged from Armenia to gamble in rugs, caviar, tin and finally pepper with such success that he was known as the "Pepper King," threw parties which were the awe of London and owned a model farm in Surrey on which he raised 600 thoroughbred pigs even fatter and greasier than their owner. In 1935 "Pepper King" Bishirgian joined with his friend "Tin King" John Henry Charles Ernest Howeson in an attempt to corner the pepper market. When a bumper crop threatened their corner, they resorted to a fraudulent stock issue which brought...
...last week, three British financiers received British Justice for their part in last year's unsavory "pepper pool" collapse that rocked London commodity markets and brought losses of millions to British investors (TIME, Feb. 18, 1935). The "Pepper King," an Armenian-born British subject named Garabed Bishirgian, had been accused of issuing a securities prospectus which he "knew to be false in a material particular." Aiding & abetting this crime was the charge against John Henry Charles Ernest Howeson, one time Calcutta jute dealer who changed his name from von Ernsthausen before he became the world's undisputed...
Having heard the jury's verdict of guilty, Justice Sir Cyril Atkinson turned to the fallen financiers and said: "You were in great positions. Great positions carry great responsibilities. I should be failing in my duty if I did not punish you." Thereupon he sentenced Messrs. Bishirgian & Howeson to one year of imprisonment without hard labor. That was the same sentence passed upon mighty Lord Kylsant in 1931 in the same court house for the same offence in connection with a scandalous Royal Mail Steam Packet prospectus. The third pepper man received nine months. All appealed...
Background of the pepper case was as dizzy as any U. S. dance of corporate dummies. Between Garabed Bishirgian's barren birthplace and his swank mansion in London's Park Lane lay a speculative trail that included caviar, tin and Turk ish rugs. By reputation his "only god was a rising share," though on week ends he was devoted to his 600 pigs on his model farm in Surrey. His lavish stag parties were the talk of the City...
According to one witness at the Old Bailey trial, Howeson's flier in pepper was a complete side-show for him. Garabed Bishirgian was a Howeson crony, and while transactions were for the account of a company headed by Howeson, the pepper trading was done through Bishirgian & Co. Messrs. Bishirgian & Howeson started to play the shellac market late in 1933, switched to white pepper in 1934 with the idea of cornering the world supply. By that summer the Howeson firm was loaded up with some $2,000,000 worth of shellac and about $5,000,000 worth of pepper...