Below is an article that appeared in the _Orange County Register_'s "Metro" section (p. 5) on Sunday, April 2, 1995: Edison descendant's bequest may have been embezzled Police: Authorities are investigating a case involving a group that disputes the Holocaust. By Jonathan Volzke The Orange County Register [a newspaper published in Orange County, CA] Costa Mesa--Police are investigating whether $7.5 million from the estate of Thomas Edison's grand-niece was embezzled from a Costa Mesa group which denies that Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Costa Mesa police detectives, with San Diego County sheriff's Special Weapons and Tactics officers, seized guns, bank statements and other paperwork from the homes of a former member of The Legion for the Survival of Freedom and his associate on March 22. The search warrant became public Tuesday. The northern San Diego County homes of former member Willis Allison Carto and Henry John Fischer are behind 7-foot chain-link fences and barbed wire. Leaders of the group contend that Jean Edison Farrell, a descendant of the light-bulb inventor, left the legion millions in 1985. Carto and Fischer went to Switzerland to handle the inheritance. A settlement allegedly giving the legion $7.5 million was reached in 1990. But the money never made it to the group, the parent organization of the Costa Mesa-based Institute for Historical Review. The institute contends that historical accounts of the Holocaust are overstated. Carto and Fischer could not be reached for comment Friday. Court documents say Carto admits having the money. The battle between the The [_sic_] Legion for the Survival of Freedom and Carto rages in civil courts. The Texas State Attorney's Office reviewed the case for two years before sending it to Orange County, Costa Mesa police Sgt. Jerry Holloway said. "We're in the infancy stages of the investigation because of all the paperwork we have to go through," Holloway said. "We're looking for a paper trail of the money. We're finding what we're looking for." Police have less than a year to file charges because of a statute of limitations. "The investigation is a pleasant surprise," legion President Greg Raven said.
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