Khaberni - Throughout history, many people have led fraudulent schemes from which they derived vast fortunes. For instance, in the last century, Victor Lustig pretended to be a governmental envoy and proceeded to scam various individuals by attempting to sell them the Eiffel Tower. He also simultaneously deceived others by convincing them that he owned a machine, essentially a box, for printing money. At the same time, Charles Ponzi used a similar ruse to establish what is described as a Ponzi scheme, also known as a financial pyramid, and defrauded a large number of people. In contemporary times, American Bernard Madoff relied on a Ponzi scheme to earn tens of millions of dollars.
Joining this list is Frenchwoman Thérèse Humbert, who defrauded many French citizens and banks and amassed large sums of money.
Defrauding her husband
Thérèse Humbert was born in 1855 into a poor French family in the region of Aussonne. During her youth, Thérèse Humbert's father attempted to buy farmland through fraud by borrowing and deceiving people into believing he would soon become wealthy due to an imminent large inheritance from a recently deceased relative.
Following the death of Thérèse Humbert's father, leaving the family with huge debts they were unable to repay, Thérèse took it upon herself to deceive people to make money. In the meantime, her first victim was her husband, Frédéric Humbert, who later became a deputy and was none other than the son of the French Minister of Justice, Gustave Humbert.
Before their marriage, this deceitful woman convinced her husband's family that she was the sole heiress to her relative who was close to death. Thérèse Humbert also assured her husband's family that her relative owned a mansion and a vast wealth. Despite her deception being discovered later, her husband Frédéric Humbert agreed to stay with her and continue their life together, also participating in the fraudulent schemes she led.
A strange fraud story in France
In one of France's most famous fraud cases, Thérèse Humbert spoke in 1879 about securing a share of the fortune of an American millionaire named Robert Henry Crawford, due to her having saved his life during a heart attack he suffered while traveling by train.
Moreover, the French fraudster asserted that she was fighting a legal battle against the children of Henry Robert Crawford's brother, who she claimed had died, to claim her inheritance rights. To convince everyone, Thérèse Humbert filed a lawsuit against the children of Henry Robert Crawford's brother. To give the matter a realistic appearance, Thérèse Humbert's brothers impersonated the children of Henry Robert Crawford's brother.
Furthermore, the French fraudster followed them in court and also obtained a document proving that the children of Henry Robert Crawford's brother had relinquished part of their fortune to her as a type of agreement to close the case.
Taking advantage of all this, Thérèse Humbert moved among many wealthy individuals and banks, obtaining hefty loans from them by leveraging her alleged and fabricated legal victory over the inheritance of Mr. Henry Robert Crawford. To repay her debts to some of the wealthy individuals who hurried to recover their money, the French fraudster resorted to borrowing funds from other people, thereby creating a form of a Ponzi scheme.
Thanks to the substantial money she earned from this fraud, Thérèse Humbert, along with her husband, the lawyer who defended her in her purported case, purchased the Vives-Eaux palace located near the River Seine close to Paris. Moreover, she gained a prestigious social status and was invited many times to attend events and dinner parties organized by wealthy French citizens.
This fraud scheme continued for about 20 years before a judge, following a court decision, decided to open the iron safe that contained the supposed Humbert inheritance documents. At that time, everyone was astonished to find that the safe contained only a single penny coin.
After this incident, the Humbert couple, who had fled the country, were arrested in Madrid at the end of 1902. Upon their return to France, the couple received a mere 5-year prison sentence. Meanwhile, the incident angered the French public, banks, and creditors who lost their money, as everyone described the sentence as lenient for a woman who looted approximately 50 million French francs.
