From: mpcgram-owner@mail.papermoneyworld.net on behalf of MPCgram [mpcgram@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 1:16 PM To: mpcgram@papermoneyworld.net Subject: MPCGram 1531 MPC Gram News Letter =========================================== MPC GRAM =========================================== Series 8, no 1531 Monday, March 5, 2007 MPC Fraud by Jim Downey     Although one of the purposes of MPC was to curtail black market activities near US military installations overseas, in some cases the MPC system allowed certain individuals the opportunity to engage in other financial shenanigans. The case of Major Thomas Pate illustrates how one person was able to manipulate the system on a grand scale – at least for a while anyway.    Major Pate was the Chief Finance Officer at Tachikawa Air Force Base in Japan in 1953. In that position he oversaw the finance offices of three other installations in Japan as well. Tachikawa was the collection point for worn out and mutilated MPC. Major Pate was also responsible for supervising the destruction of the unserviceable notes.     Unserviceable notes were retained until enough had been acquired to warrant destroying them by burning which was about every other month. The finance officer turned the notes over to a destruction committee of three other officers who were responsible for supervising the actual destruction. The notes were counted by finance personnel prior to the destruction committee taking possession of the notes. Schedules of destruction that included the total amount of MPC to be destroyed by denomination were also prepared by the finance office prior to turning the notes over to the committee. No record of the serial numbers of the notes to be destroyed was made. The committee was supposed to verify the amounts on the destruction schedules by counting all the notes themselves.    Major Pate noticed that the committee never actually counted all the notes when they took possession. The finance office bound the notes in packets of 100 which were then bundled together in groups of 10 so each bundle had 1,000 notes. The committee only counted the number of bundles to determine the amount and verify it against the destruction schedule. Occasionally, a committee member would do a spot check of notes in a bundle. One of the parties that testified at the court-martial indicated that there were typically 48 bundles of $5.00 and $10.00 notes prepared for destruction. That is 48,000 notes for each denomination at one time!    In addition to being finance officer, Major Pate was also the cash control officer. This gave him control over the money in the vault. He identified that the internal counting controls were lax. The only accounting done for the vault was a monthly report of the amount in the vault on the last day of the month. There was no reconciliation from month to month of the balance in the vault against transactions. The monthly balance also did not distinguish between US greenback currency and MPC.    All of this allowed Major Pate to engage in the not too sophisticated practice of replacing $10.00 notes from the bundles to be destroyed with $5.00 notes from the vault after they had been counted by the finance office. He placed the $10.00 notes the vault and removed half that amount in greenbacks since they replaced the $5.00 notes he inserted in the bundles that were destroyed. He sent the excess money to the United States .    In March 1953 he managed to net $17,500.00 from this exercise. From March to June 1953 he acquired an additional $7,000.00. From July to September, the amount jumped to $85,000.00. In October he had a big score when he falsified the destruction schedule to be $100,000.00 greater than the amount actually destroyed.     He eventually became uncomfortable sending such large sums of money through the mail and worked another scheme to get it home. This involved endorsing checks that were cashed at the finance cage to himself and forwarding the checks to his bank in the United States. He could make the office accounts balance by putting an equivalent amount of money into the vault.    Like many people in similar circumstances, Major Pate’s excess became his undoing. He used his ill-gotten gain to purchase a number of big ticket items including a house in Japan ($2,800.00), $15,000.00 in savings bonds, $13,178.00 in premiums on a life insurance policy, the Del Mar Apartments in San Gabriel CA ($50,265.00), a new Cadillac, a poultry farm in California ($31,250.00) and paid down a loan of $3,094.00. When he was finally caught, he had an additional $60,000.00 stuffed in his shaving kit in his desk in the finance office.    He pled guilty to 21 counts of larceny and 1 count of illegally possessing US currency. He was sentenced to 7 years confinement, dismissal from the service and paid over $200,000.00 in restitution.    The notes in use would have been Series 481 MPC. This is the last series for which the $5.00 and $10.00 notes were the same size. Series 521 had already been printed prior to the Pate case but it is possible that similar cases or a general confusion of similar looking notes of different denominations may have prompted the reduction in size. ***************************************************** Championship Question Corner Question 183. Difficuly 1. What was the last series of MPC with the $5 denomination the same size as the $10? Yesterdays Question 182.Question 183. Difficuly 3. What is the highest denomination Allied Military franc note that was printed in the United States? Answers and comments: Bill Myers and Jack Hunter correctly identified the 5000 franc as the highest denomination printed in the US. Jack correctly pointed out that this is hardly a difficulty 3. ========================================== Editorial ========================================== I often introduce myself as Judy's driver. It is even more true than normal since she had her operation on Jan 15. She has not driven a mile since then although she has ridden many. There is a silver lining. Yesterday I had to drive her to Walmart for some pressing need. I looked at computer monitors because I want to add a second one to my home setup. Cannot pull the trigger, but I continue to be interested. Near that section was a large selection of movie DVDs. I looked casaually and one stood out--Victory at Sea. This was a three DVD set of the 26 episodes of the classic newsreels from World War II. I remember watching them on Saturday mornings in the 1950s. I watched because there were no cartoons, but I learned. I snatched the DVD set. I then studied the hundreds of other titles. This was the only nonfiction title in the selection. For a long time I thought that it was the only copy, but eventually I found two more copies that had clearly been pushed to the back by the natural selection process of the under 30 purchasers of DVDs. I condier that the location of the one copy where I could find it a mircale. I have not started watching them yet, but I am excited about doing it. Get this. The set was $5.50. I considered buying the other two sets, but did not. I might go back and get them, but I suggest that you call your Walmart if you are interested. Alternatively, I will go buy the remaining two at our Walmart for the first two who claim them. ========================================= Mail Call (send mail to MPCGram@yahoo.com) =========================================== Dear Editor, Geesh I think I miss-spelled institution but I can't use my spell checker here as it keeps changing "Colin" to "Coleen." As for Feller & Feller....does their new book have the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Vilnus, Lithuania ghetto... set of 1, 2, 5, 20, 50 and 100 Shalomi Jewish ghetto scrip 1943-2003 listed in it? Well printed and multicolored.....very attractive. I have three sets handy for $35/set insured postpaid if anyone is interested. Cheers, Colin =========================================== Calendar =========================================== 2007 CPMX March 8-11. MPCFest: March 23-25 2007 details TBA. 14 and 15 April 2007 The annual "Maastricht" show, officially named "PaperMoney Fair-Maastricht" will take place, with dealer set up on the 13th, at the "Polfermolen" in Valkenburg, Netherlands. For details, view the bourse web site http:// www.papermoney-maastricht.org/  or contact the show organizer, Joe Eijsermans, at apnc.eijsermans@wxs.nl or eijsermans-events@planet.nl. ANA Summer semnar Session I: June 24-29, 2007* Session II: June 30-July 6, 2007 Memphis 6-8 July ANA Convention, Milwaukee. ========================================== for dealer Hot Contact list, ANA MPC museum holdings and other static information please click this link: http://www.papermoneyworld.net/Gramattichments.htm ========================================= POST / BASE EXCHANGE(PX/BX/NEX) Dump your dupes! Your classified advertisement for items for sale, purchase or trade will be run here for free. Send your ads to the gram. This service is for everyone, most humble dealer or most advanced collector. The point is to make the gram more interesting. In all cases confirm your order via email first. WANTED SECTION: Collectors may submit lists of items wanted for their collections for listing here. WANTED - JAPANESE INVASION MONEY (JIM). Collector/researcher of these notes by zone, type, and block letter, or number will buy or trade.  Checklist available, Anythinfg unusual is of particular interest. Mike Payton, 6609 Craig, Merriam, KS. USA 66202, papermoneymike@yahoo.com Dealers and collectors who have these items, are then encouraged to list them for sale in the above section as a reply. Wanted listings will run for a period of 1 month. ======================================= MPCGram Staff: Publisher, editor: Fred Schwan fred@papermoneyworld.net; Subscription Manager:Doug Bell- doug@papermoneyworld.net Tuesday Columnist : JoeBoling- JoeBoling@aol.com Friday Columnist: Warner Talso: wtalso@aol.com Fest Auctioneer: Larry "Ski"Smulczenski - skitex@cox.net, Critic:Harold Kroll - HARBONS@aol.com Scholarship Coordinator: Marcus Turner- marucs@papermoneyworld.net; Webmaster and Technical Advisors:Doug Bell "Wiz" - doug@papermoneyworld.net Russ Walsh -russ.walsh@gte.net Fact Checker: Warner Talso -Calendar Coordinator: John and Nancy Wilson -The Boss: Judy Schwan MPC Gram is published by BNR Press and papermoneyworld.com as a free service to the community of military money collectors. Your suggestions, criticisms, complaints, editorial contributions, letters, and even praise are very welcome. The entire contents including linked illustrations are copyright protected by the publishers. In the case of contributors, the copyright is protected on behalf of the creators. Please send all correspondence regarding the gram to MPCgram@yahoo.com. Thank you very much for your participation. ____________________________________________________________________________________ TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/ mpc gram mail list To subscribe to a list, send a mail message to "imailsrv@papermoneyworld.net" at this address with the following in the body of the message: subscribe mpcgram your_full_name To unsubscribe from a list, send a mail message to "imailsrv@papermoneyworld.net" at this address with the following in the body of the message: unsubscribe mpcgram if you have any problems please report then to doug@papermoneyworld.net