Батыс АҚШ-тағы Бенсон синдикаты: XIX ғасырлық қылмыстық ұйым

Defunct American crime organization operating in the western United States

The Benson Syndicate was an unusual, 19th century organized crime organization in the western United States which received contracts from the United States General Land Office (GLO) to perform cadastral land surveys of the public lands. It was led by, and named after, John A Benson (1845–1910), originally from Illinois and later a US deputy surveyor in California. The Syndicate operated from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, but was most active in California and headquartered in San Francisco. Its tenure ran from an uncertain origin in the mid 1870s to 1898 but was at its peak activity from 1880 to 1885. In California alone, at least 40 individuals were known to be involved, and very probably more actually were; a major uncertainty involves how many people were involved, and where. The group's modus operandi was to generate false demand for public land surveys from supposedly interested "settlers" (see Public Land Survey System) using fictitious applications for surveys of specified townships. Two successive California Surveyors General, who were part of the ring, then awarded surveying contracts to Benson associates for the surveys. These were then fraudulently executed, ranging in quality from skeletal surveys based on minimal data, to outright fabrications of all data and maps. The required survey output official notes and plat maps were then forged to make the surveys appear legitimate on paper. The scheme only worked as long as no ground based inspections of the townships were conducted prior to survey approval, which however went on for at least five years. The group's downfall was only initiated when these were finally instituted in mid 1885, which then was very rapid. The surveys were officially contracted to individual deputy surveyors other than Benson himself, some of whom were not even aware that the surveying contracts existed in their names, having been induced by Benson to sign blank papers which were later turned into contracts and other legal documents without their knowledge. At other times, people with minimal or no surveying experience, and/or lacking proper qualifications as deputy surveyors, performed the work without the contracted surveyor ever being physically present, which was also patently illegal. In the worst cases, entire contracted areas, consisting of several adjacent survey townships (~36 square miles each), were fabricated by Benson or his associates at his San Francisco office, with little or no work on the ground at all, as exemplified in quotes from GLO annual reports given below.

Benson's organization infiltrated into very high levels of the government, and syndicate members in governmental positions as well as members of congress made the group's schemes possible. For example, in California two Surveyors General in the 1880s approved numerous fraudulent survey results and approved requests for government payment that were 200 to 700 percent of the originally estimated survey cost, which the government paid. Theodore Wagner was especially notorious in this regard, and his appointment as California Surveyor General coincided with a large increase in the group's activities and power. Others approved contracts that had originally been rejected (after inspection by independent government examiners), without evidence or assurance that the surveys had been properly corrected or completed. Also, at least one such examiner in California was part of the syndicate, attempting to gain payment for some rejected surveys via bogus field "examinations" (which were themselves later rejected as fraudulent as the extent of the group's activities became known). Banks were also involved, providing the deposits and performance bonds required by the government, in exchange for a cut of the enormous profits generated. These banks later also paid for the syndicate's defense attorneys in trials brought by the government in its failed, ten year effort to convict the syndicate members and recover funds paid for fraudulent work.

It was completely implausible survey results such as these, as well as the sworn testimony of disenchanted employees or associates, that led to the recognition of the widespread fraud of Benson's group. Beginning about 1886, contracts held by certain surveyors thought to be aligned with Benson were not paid by the government, leading to various lawsuits. In 1887, forty one federal indictments for conspiracy and perjury were brought against Benson and several others, as mentioned in the Report quote above. However the trials, in federal district court, did not even occur until 1892, and when they did all were found innocent on legal technicalities. However their actual guilt was clear to everyone familiar with the facts, and surveyors associated with Benson had difficulty getting work. Because of this, Benson proposed what came to be known as the "Benson Compromise" in 1895 to the California Surveyor General, which proposed to correct or finish the survey work on several contracts that had never been paid out because government examiners had declared the work bogus. This compromise was accepted by the government, but little of this supposedly "corrected" work is reported to have ever been accepted by the Surveyor General as valid.