The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Shofar FTP Archive File: orgs/american/ihr//press/embezzlement-investigation


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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