Marthe Hanau was a Frenchwoman who successfully defrauded French financial markets in the 1920s and the 1930s.
16 Facts About Marthe Hanau
1.
2.
Marthe Hanau was born in Lille to the family of a Jewish industrialist.
3.
Marthe Hanau married Lazare Bloch in 1908; they later divorced.
4.
Marthe Hanau's paper promoted mainly the stocks and securities of her own business partners, whose businesses were mere shells or paper companies.
5.
Marthe Hanau expanded her investing advice network and later formed her own financial news agency, Agence Interpresse.
6.
At first, Marthe Hanau managed to quell the rumours by bribing cooperative politicians.
7.
Marthe Hanau protested that the court did not understand financial business, could return all the money, and should be released on bail.
8.
Three weeks later, Marthe Hanau was moved to Cochin Hospital in Paris, where she was forcibly fed.
9.
Marthe Hanau was moved to a hospice, where she still announced that she would return all of the money, but not everybody believed her.
10.
Marthe Hanau's trial began in earnest on 20 February 1932.
11.
Marthe Hanau received two years in prison, but the court credited her with the 15 months that she had already spent in prison.
12.
When Marthe Hanau was released later that year, she bought the Forces magazine.
13.
Marthe Hanau was sentenced to three months in prison for receiving classified information.
14.
Marthe Hanau appealed, but after the appeal was rejected, she fled.
15.
Marthe Hanau committed suicide on 19 July 1935 by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.
16.
Marthe Hanau died in Fresnes Prison a few days before the end of her prison term.