Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/102

 On the face of the agreement Gould made over to Erie an immense amount of property and all suits were withdrawn and Gould released from all criminal responsibility. A clause in the agreement said that in making this transfer of property Gould expressly stipulated that it should not be considered as an admission of wrong-doing. The Opera House and adjoining buildings and other real estate, with the exception of Gould's Fifth avenue mansion, were made over to the Erie, and, in addition, a mass of stocks of the par value of about $6,000,000. As a matter of fact most of these stocks were worthless. J. G. Guppy told the Hepburn Committee that he would not give $200,000 for the entire lot. Among the securities were $1,000,000 of United States Express stock to be issued, and which Gould guaranteed to be issued, but which, as a matter of fact, never was. When Hugh J. Jewett became receiver of Erie he discovered the utter sham of this alleged restitution. He told the Hepburn Committee: "Mr. Watson had made a settlement with Mr. Gould, in which he received in liquidation of this account, or such portion of it as he supposed he could recover, certain assets. When I came here I sought to realize on these assets. I found many of them totally worthless, and some which were of value were encumbered by existing liens."

By the closing of these transactions Mr. Gould was entirely freed from all connection with Erie and was enabled to seek new fields for cultivation. It had been a few years before, during the Erie troubles,