In the year 1925, France had recovered from World War I and the economic activities in Paris were booming like anything. It was just a perfect time for a con artist to flourish. During that time, an article came in newspaper mentioning that it was getting difficult to maintain Eiffel Tower.
Lustig’s eyes got bigger after reading this news. He got cues from this article and decided to sell Eiffel Tower. Lustig prepared fake government stationary and invited six scrap metal dealers to a confidential meeting at the Hotel de Crillon, one of the most prestigious of the old Paris hotels, to discuss a possible business deal. All the invited metal dealers attended meeting at the hotel. Lustig had introduced himself as the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs.
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Lustig described to metal dealers that the maintenance of Eiffel Tower is getting difficult and therefore they wanted to sell it for scrap. He also urged them to keep the deal secret. He said that he had been given the responsibility to select the dealer to carry out the task. Lustig then took the metal dealers to Eiffel Tower for inspection in a rented Limousine. The tour also gave Lustig an opportunity to assess all the dealers and sense who among them will be more keen for the deal.
After the inspection, Lustig asked the metal dealers to submit their bids by next day and also reminded them to keep the deal secret. One of the dealers Poisson was insecure and was thinking to obtain the deal as it would give him the opportunity to be in the league of big players. However, Poisson’s wife was suspicious about the deal. She also doubted why the deal was arranged in a very short span of time.
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