$650,000 theft from Deloro - 1965
/In 1939 Deloro was the only company in North America capable of producing cobalt. The only other companies in the world producing this sought after metal were the Belgian company Katanga, and a Rhodesian company named Rhokana, which had no refinery of its own. With war looming and Germany approaching the Belgian border, the need for cobalt for planes and arms became more urgent. By agreement Deloro took on the Rhokana needs, with ore being shipped out of Africa at a port on the Indian ocean, shipped around the southern tip of Africa to New York and then on to Deloro, where it was refined and shipped to England. In 1940, the Germans overran the Katanga plant in Belgium, leaving Deloro the only refinery in the world. Deloro’s profits soared.
In their book, O’Brien, authors Scott and Astrid Young wrote:
Belleville Intelligencer June 29, 1965
“In 1949 the United States government, having been caught flat-footed out of cobalt before, decided to stockpile for the future, buying from the Deloro, Ontario, plant. A few months later when the Korean War began, the United States government sent men to Deloro to contract for sixty tons of cobalt a month, offering a premium price. Said Charles Buskard, then a thirty-four-year man at Deloro, "Our capacity by then had dropped back to thirty-five tons a month, so we had to build a new plant." That contract lasted until the end of 1958, with the 1,300-pound galvanized drums full of cobalt rolling out regularly into United States industries and stockpiles. In 1958 the Canadian government decided to stockpile a little, and did so—but left it on the Deloro property unguarded. When they decided to sell it in 1965 nobody could find the cobalt.“
On researching the mystery, we found little was reported on the matter, however on Aug. 12, 1965, the Winnipeg Free Press reported:
Stolen Cobalt Found TORONTO (CP) Six men have been charged in connection with the disappearance of more than ($650,000.00) worth of cobalt stockpiled by the federal government at Deloro, Ont., the provincial police said today. Assistant Commissioner Harold Graham of the OPP said most of the disappearance over a long period was discovered last been "accounted for" in England and the United States.
On the 13th of August, 1965, the “Colonist” Newspaper of BC reported that six men had been arrested, after they discovered the barrels had been filled with sand and gravel. These included three metal scrap dealers, Irvine Moldaver, 50, of Peterborough, Leonard Vigodda, 27, of Belleville, and his father, Samuel Vigodda, 50.. Along with them were William Regan, 70, a watchman at the Deloro warehouse of Deloro Mining and Reduction Co., and two labourers, Herbert Maracle. Aged 40 labourer; Leonard Boulier, aged 20.
Ontario provincial police had worked with Scotland Yard of Great Britain and the US FBI on this case. The outcome of the arrests, according to a Marmora Herald article, dated Oct 27, 1966, was that Leonard Vigodda was sentenced to two and a half years, while four others were freed. The outcome for the sixth is unknown. However that is not the end of the story.
In a lawsuit dated June 1, 1970, wherein the Deloro Smelting and Mining Company was suing to recover its losses, we find “It is alleged that on or about May 1, 1964, and thereafter, one Leonard Vigodda, a principal of Markel Metals and Minerals, Ltd., with others, perpetrated a series of thefts of the cobalt and converted it to his own use. It is alleged further that subsequently he sold and delivered the converted metal to the third-party defendant, H. Klaff and Company, Inc., a Maryland corporation, in Baltimore, Maryland. Thereafter, between May, 1964 and January, 1965, Klaff in turn sold this same lot of stolen cobalt in Baltimore to K. Hettleman and Sons, a division of Minerals and Chemicals Phillip Corporation, located in Maryland. In 1967, Minerals and Chemicals merged into Engelhard Minerals and Chemicals Corporation, a Delaware corporation, the defendant”. (In 2004, that company had 6500 employees and sales of $4.17 billion)
Hopefully Deloro got its money back!
