claparons

Updated: April 30, 2025

Another much-used stratagem, and one to which we owe the term "serious and legitimate creditor," is that of creating creditors, just as du Tillet created a banker and a banking-house, and introducing a certain quantity of Claparons under whose skin the bankrupt hides, diminishing by just so much the dividends of the true creditors, and laying up for the honest man a store for the future; always, however, providing a sufficient majority of votes and debts to secure the passage of his certificate.

Honoré de Balzac - Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau