Sam’l Posen: The Fake Townsite and Free-Lot Swindle

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Private Equity: Alden Global Capital

Sam’l Posen: The Fake Townsite and Free-Lot Swindle

Berkeley historian Richard Schwartz considers Maurice B. Curtis (1849-1921) a “national hero and Berkeley’s greatest and most-loved eccentric.” Mauritz Bertram Strellinger (real name) was sometimes later in life referred to as Sam’l of Posen, the name of the play that made him very rich and famous. When Congress refused to pay to light the newly dedicated Statue of Liberty, Curtis paid for it, the only private citizen ever to do so. However, thi…