Help please for missing letters from word

[whitetho]

I am trying to read a microfilmed newspaper article, and because of the poor quality the opening few letters of one of the words are obscured. Based on the context, I thought someone might be able to guess the missing part. The sentence, from “Seattle Wireless Agent Arrested”, in the June 28, 1910 issue of the Morning Oregonian, reads:

Counsel for Mr. Parker issued the following statement in his behalf tonight: "There is no merit in this prosecution **nctuated by brokers, discharged employees and holders of stock who secured same without consideration.

and the word that appears to end in “nctuated” is the one that has me puzzled, although I suspect it is one of those big-lawyer-words. A scan of the article sentence is at:
http://www.ipass.net/~whitetho/parker.gif

Thanks in advance, All Hail Uncle Cecil!, etc., etc.

[Cunctator]

Perhaps it’s actuated?

[DooWahDiddy]

Punctuated? As in, “There is no merit in this prosecution filled by brokers, discharged employees and holders of stock who secured same without consideration.”?

WAG.

[indecisive1]

The left hand part of the page is folded over on itself. You may be missing more that the prefix. Notice that emp… is unreadable. “loyee” is not readable in the scan. It may be two words that are missing.

[sundog66]

@indecisive1

The left hand part of the page is folded over on itself. You may be missing more that the prefix.

In light of this, perhaps it should read, “There is no merit in this prosecution. It is punctuated by brokers, discharged employees…”