Austin Bidwell

From 21 January to 28 February 1873, four American con-artists defrauded the Bank of England of £102,217, equivalent to nearly £10 million in 2015. The four men responsible for the Bank of England forgeries, brothers George and Austin Bidwell, George MacDonnell and Edwin Noyes were convicted at the Old Bailey and sentenced to life imprisonment. The discovery of the crime, and the subsequent investigations and trials, received widespread attention at the time, with the London Times describing it as one of the "most skillful attempts to prey upon the complex organization of modern commerce."