Bolo Pasha
[3] Bolo and Hilmi were seen together, visiting the statue of the Sphinx, the pyramids and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, which is situated in the Citadel of Cairo.
Newspaper articles of the time preserve this history: In November, 1914, in an effort to prevent the permanent sequestration of the ex-Khedive's property in Egypt, Bolo sent an Italian friend to Constantinople, where Abbas then was, with two letters.
Bolo thereupon made an alternative proposal to the effect that he purchase an interest in some of the leading newspapers of France, at the same time guaranteeing the publication of a number of articles favorable to the German cause.
Abbas Hilmi is said to have favored the last proposition, and after a conference with Count Monts, the former German Ambassador to Rome, dispatched Sadik Pasha to Berlin to propose the project to Foreign Minister von Jagow.
A brief time after that Abbas Hilmi, accompanied by Chefik Pasha, arrived at the Hotel Savoy, Zurich, where Bolo and Commandatore Cavallini already were installed.
The next day at a conference at the Savoy, Bolo was said to have accepted Von Jagow's proposal of 10,000,000 marks monthly, to be paid through the ex-Khedive.
The story has it that on March 21, 1915, the former Egyptian ruler received the first instalment through the Dresden Bank and sent it to an agent in Italy to be paid to Bolo.
Apparently Bolo was given $2,500,000 to be used to pay the French media in order to influence the public to accept peace with Germany.
He was assisted by the Military Attaché Captain Franz von Papen, who purchased an established New York import/export firm, G. Amsinck & Co.,[4] to act as an intermediary for the financing of German espionage and sabotage in the US and launder the financial transactions.
The Paris newspaper Le Journal, owned by Senator Charles Humbert, was to be one of the papers to carry misleading 'fake news'.
The banking firm Muller, Schall and Company acted for the pair and used G. Amsinck & Co. as a front to facilitate the transfer of $1,700,000 to fund the subterfuge.
[1] He collected some "sensational" evidence:The evidence, which included photographic reproductions of many telltale checks, letters, and telegrams, revealed the fact that Count Bernstorff, then German Ambassador at Washington, had eagerly fallen in with Bolo's proposition to betray France by corrupting the press in favor of a premature peace and had advanced him the enormous sum of $1,683,500 to finance the plot.
Second—Establish on your books a credit of $5,000, good until the 31st of May, In favor of Jules Bois, Biltmore Hotel, this amount to be utilized by him at the debit of my account according to his needs, and the unused balance to be returned to me.
Bolo, with agency T of Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris a sum of about $524,000, to be debited to my account as such transfers are made by you at best rate and by small amounts.
[3] Senator Charles Humbert, whom Bolo had mentioned in his letter to the Royal Bank of Canada on March 14, 1916, was summoned as a witness.
[3] Bolo Pasha was executed by firing squad at the Fort Neuf de Vincennes on the morning of April 17, 1918.
After the execution, Georges Clemenceau, the Prime Minister of France, addressed the American people: This Bolo Pasha, who had had his way with everybody and in almost every situation, had met a strong man at last!
And so at the conclusion of their little interview Mr. Clemenceau escorted Bolo Pasha to the Forest of Vincennes, and placing him with his back to a wall, compelled him to face the business end of twelve French rifles.
