ARCHIVES | 1964 Soviet Said to Doom 9 in Big Fraud Ring FEB. 27, 1964 Continue reading the main storyShare This Page Share Tweet Email More Save About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems. Please send reports of such problems to archive_feedback@nytimes.com. The article as it originally appeared. VIEW PAGE IN TIMESMACHINE February 27, 1964, Page 1 The New York Times Archives MOSCOW, Feb. 26—Nine persons have been sentenced to death as members of a Moscow fraud ring involving Soviet officials, according to reliable sources. Four others have been given 15‐year jail terms and about 10 others lesser prison sentences after a two‐month trial of 23 persons, all of whom were found guilty of having participated in a private enterprise ring. Eighteen of the accused are understood to be Jews. It was not known how many of the nine sentenced to death were Jews and whether they included the ringleader, identified as Shakerman, who re‐ceived a separate death sen‐tence earlier this month. The only other memnners of the ring who have been. identied in the press are Roifman and Galperin; both are Jewish names. The ring was said to have netted three million rubles ($3.3 million) by using mental patients to produce knitted goods, which were then sold through illegal retail outlets in market places and railway stations. In an appeal to Premier Khrushchev, made public Feb. 17, a group of distinguished Western citizens, including six Nobel Prize winners, expressed concern that about half of those executed in the Soviet Union for economic crimes in the last three years were Jews. Continue reading the main story Soviet authorities have steadfastly denied that the nationality of the accused in crimes of embezzlement, bribery, theft of state property and so forth had any bearing on the cases. Last October, Izvestia, the Government newspaper, demanded a major show trial of the Shakerman ring as a deterrent against economic crimes which have shown no indication of declining despite the imposition of the death sentence since 1961. Izvestia identified some of the Jewish accused by name and added. “We mention the Jewish surnames . . . because we pay no heed to malicious slander that is being stirred up in the Western press from time to time. It is not Jews, Russians, Tatars or Ukrainians who will stand trial — criminals will stand trial. Plans for a show trial were shelved, presumably because of the involvement of bribetaking Soviet officials. When the trail opened without publicity late December, the public and Western newsmen were not admitted. Outsiders were understood to have been barred from the courtroom because the bribetakers were to be identified during testimony. The officials are known to include two former masters of the Kursk Railroad Station, one of the busiest railroad stations of the Soviet capital. They were given seven‐year prison terms last September for having accepted 1,300 rubles ($1,443) and other gifts from the Shakerman ring. In return build two market stalls to retail its illegally manufactured wares on the main square in front of the station and a third in the main waiting room. A version of this archives appears in print on February 27, 1964, on Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Soviet Said to Doom 9 in Big Fraud Ring. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe Continue reading the main story TRENDING George H.W. Bush Funeral: A Son Eulogizes His Father Why We Miss the WASPs Wisconsin Republicans Approve Bills Stripping Power From Incoming Democratic Governor I’m a Democrat and a Feminist. And I Support Betsy DeVos’s Title IX Reforms. The Best Movies of 2018 The Woman Who Outruns the Men, 200 Miles at a Time Les Moonves Obstructed Investigation Into Misconduct Claims, Report Says For George Bush and His Eldest Son, a Relationship Unique Among American Presidents The ‘Next America’ Michael Flynn, Witness for the Prosecution View More Trending Stories » What's Next Loading... Go to Home Page » SITE INDEX THE NEW YORK TIMES Site Index Navigation NEWS World U.S. Politics N.Y. 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