Probing Bucketshop Books

A far-reaching decision was handed down by Judge Julian W. Mack in the Federal Court, by which State prosecutors can hereafter examine the books of bankrupt brokerage firms for evidence of bucketing and other forms of criminal conversion. Hitherto State and city officials have found it impossible to obtain convictions against bucket-shoppers, who have claimed that such an examination of their books would be unconstitutional, and the equivalent of compelling them to testify against themselves.

The case arose in connection with the bankrupt firm of E. M. Fuller & Co., wherein accountants failed to find any trace of $6,612,000 of securities which should be in the firm's possession. The company failed in 1922, with liabilities of over $1,500,000, and assets of only $70,000.

Judge Mack's decision is of wide interest at the present time, since it affords means of prosecuting upwards of a hundred brokerage firms that failed in New York since 1920.