Sir William Waterlow
Books
- Printed by the Bank Itself Alves dos Reis, Waterlow & Sons, and the Banknote Fraud That Shook Portugal · Liszt Think
In 1925, a Lisbon clerk with a forged Oxford diploma orchestrated the largest banknote fraud in history.
- The Forged Pedigree…spent the winter of 1924 studying the firm’s history, its current management, its procedures for accepting new commissions. He learned that Sir William Waterlow, the managing director, had recently completed his term as Lord Mayor of London and had been elevated to a baronetcy, honors that suggested…
- The Printer on Threadneedle Street…any competent clerk. A genuine banknote with a forged history would pass every test until someone thought to ask why it existed. In London, Sir William Waterlow attended to his responsibilities with no intimation of the design forming against him. The firm had recently completed a routine printing f…
- The Contract from the Bank of Portugal…f documents that have traveled through proper channels. The contract’s arrival in London coincided with a period of particular opportunity. Sir William Waterlow, whose family firm had executed printing contracts for sovereign clients across four generations, was actively seeking to expand his coloni…