Source: Polis Mecmuası (Police Magazine), issue 71 (1914), pages 184–187
A news report on the arrest of a gang manufacturing counterfeit Hejaz Railway stamps operating in Istanbul. The text has been adapted from the Ottoman Turkish of the period into an English translation.
A gang of counterfeiters, active in Istanbul for the past year producing fake Hejaz Railway stamps, has been apprehended along with their tools and equipment. A report submitted to the Ministry of the Interior by the Istanbul Police Directorate provides the following details on the gang's arrest:
What Was Seized
An investigation launched from a single counterfeit Hejaz Railway stamp seized by the Beyoğlu Police Directorate revealed that those producing the stamps had organized themselves as a company. Seized from the operation were printing machines, a device specifically for perforating the stamp edges, and 43,615 counterfeit stamps and accompanying papers. The stamps were printed in three colors (a sample appears in the photograph above). The investigation into this ring, understood to have an extensive organization, continues to deepen.
The Distribution Network
Counterfeit stamps and papers were recovered so far from the following locations: the shop of tobacconist Hristo at the corner of Mesk Street; moneychanger Yasef in Karaköy; moneychanger Leon in Galata; moneychanger Kiryakon's shop near Balat and Tekfur Sarayı; tobacconist Habib's shop in Tahtakale, on the Istanbul side; and, in Sirkeci, the tobacconist shop that also housed moneychanger Yani on Bâbıâli Street. A considerable quantity of stamps had been sold at each of these locations. It is strongly suspected that a far larger quantity of counterfeit stamps and papers, confirmed to have changed hands for money, remains in circulation.
How the Case Broke: Koço's Confession
On May 10th, Bekiroğlu, of the Police Directorate's Miscellaneous Expenses Office, was assigned to purchase stamps for affixing to expense receipts. He discovered that a Hejaz stamp he had bought from tobacconist Hristo, at the corner of Mesk Street, was counterfeit. Information obtained from Hristo revealed that a man named Koço had purchased 505 of these stamps from him at 32 paras apiece.
A search of Koço's house turned up counterfeit stamps and papers, a lease agreement, and 38 counterfeit one-lira banknotes. Under interrogation, Koço admitted he had obtained the stamps from a woman named Madam Amelia at a 15 percent discount, and confessed to distributing them as follows: 505 to tobacconist Hristo; 1,000 to tobacconist Yani on Bâbıâli Street; 700 to tobacconist Mağırıcı opposite Galatasaray; 300 to tobacconist Karabet at the Altın Bakkal tram stop in Pangaltı; 500 to tobacconist Kiryako near the Tekke police station; 500 to tobacconist Karanika; and 1,000 to Prokar and tobacconist Todori on Nuruosmaniye Street.
The Arrest of Madam Amelia
Madam Amelia, daughter of Miltiadi, who lived in apartment No. 2 of a building owned by a head porter in Beyoğlu, was located and her home searched. Police found 12,415 counterfeit stamps and papers, along with a quantity of saccharin in a tin box.
Amelia stated that the stamps had been printed and brought to her house by her former husband/associate [name illegible] and his assistant Koço. She said she had later realized they were counterfeit but had not reported it to the authorities, fearing Petro's threats that she herself would be implicated if she did. She admitted to selling part of her remaining stock through Koço as well.
İstefan's Testimony
İstefan, a bookbinder on Bâbıâli Street, stated that a man named Koço, whom he had known for three years without ever learning his nationality or hometown, regularly came to his shop to have "labels" made for cologne bottles. A year earlier, Koço had come to the shop with a companion named Niko, explaining that they had brought machinery and molds from Greece to print and sell counterfeit Hejaz Railway stamps and papers, and invited İstefan to join the enterprise. İstefan accepted.
According to İstefan, Koço circulated the counterfeit stamps brought to him through a moneychanger's assistant, Anastaş, at the gate of the Sadıkiye Han in Sultanhamamı. While the three of them — Koço, Niko, and İstefan — were drinking at Nikola's tavern on Yenice Street in Beyoğlu, with some three thousand counterfeit stamps in their possession, police officers entered to check papers. All three left the stamps under the table and fled; Nikola, trying to escape capture, jumped from the roof of a house and broke his leg.
Fearing that the incident would expose the counterfeit stamps, Koço moved most of his stock, along with a perforating machine, to [an apartment building, name illegible], and took the machine specific to stamp production and the remainder to the bookbinder's shop on Bâbıâli Street before disappearing. İstefan went there a week later but could not find Koço, and returned to the city. It later emerged that the machines had been in Tahtakale, in the hands of Papazoğlu, four months earlier.
The Search of Papazoğlu's House
A search of the room Koço had rented in Papazoğlu's house — the same room from which İstefan continued distributing stamps through Anastaş — turned up a machine specific to stamp production, 21 small iron machine parts, two dies (one for five stamps, one for twenty-five), a screwdriver, and a brush.
Also seized were: oil paint in a quantity matching that found on the printing stone and machines; an iron plate used for distributing the paint; a quantity of lime powder in a tin; orange oil paint in another box; assorted chemical ingredients in a small box; heavy-duty paper; 1,200 stamps' worth of white paper gummed on one side; and 34,428 counterfeit Hejaz stamps and papers.
The Interrogation of Niko and Petro
Niko, from Gelibolu (son of Todori), lived on Mesk Street and ran a grocery shop at No. 18 on the same street. Under interrogation he denied any knowledge of the counterfeiting operation, but his involvement was established through the testimony of his associate Petro and his connection to the previous year's incident in which a man broke his leg fleeing police.
Petro, who lived at No. 10, French Wharf, Mumhane, Galata, confessed under interrogation that he, together with Anastaş (son of Hristo, from Samsun, who worked as an assistant at a moneychanger's shop by the gate of the Sadıkiye Han in Sultanhamamı), had sold the counterfeit stamps at a 50 percent discount to tobacconist Habib the Persian in Tahtakale and to tobacconist Mirza Ali at Perşembe Pazarı in Galata.
Petro, Nikola, Koço, Anastaş, and Amelia, regarded as the ring's principal leaders, were taken into custody.
Conclusion
The evidence gathered confirms that a significant quantity of counterfeit stamps has been sold to date. In order to protect the public from being defrauded by such counterfeit stamps and papers and to safeguard the interests of the state treasury, the police have reported the matter to the Ministry of Finance. The investigation continues to be deepened by the police, and the seized documents are being forwarded to the relevant authorities.
