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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 4 |
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| 1892 | 14 |
| 1893 | 11 |
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14 stories matching defraud
- The Swindle of the Polk County Farm
A Seattle man alleges his business partners orchestrated a complex real estate scheme to defraud him.
- U.S. Marshal Transports Prisoners to McNeil Island
A roundup of prisoners sent to the federal penitentiary highlights the era's aggressive and exclusionary legal climate.
- Railroad Receivership Sparks Seattle Anxiety
A multi-thousand dollar suit against the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern railroad leaves business owners fearing insolvency.
- The Great Land Grant Tax Dodging Scheme
Railroad companies are holding onto millions of acres of public land without filing for patents to avoid taxes, placing the burden of government costs on local settlers.
- The Opium Smugglers of the Idaho
A federal investigation uncovers a massive scheme to hide contraband in the bilges and barrels of a Pacific steamship, revealing a deep culture of corruption in the Sound’s maritime trade.
- The Wage Theft That Shook the Front Street Cable Line
Thirteen teamsters and laborers sue the city's transit company and a contractor for unpaid wages, exposing the precarious financial lives of Seattle’s working class in the early 1900s.
- Railroads Drew Pencil Lines to Claim Millions of Acres
A scathing official report exposes how railroad corporations in Washington Territory and beyond used fraudulent land maps and 'pencil-line' routes to displace settlers and hoard public resources.
- The Unpaid Streets of Tacoma
A bitter legal battle reveals the messy, unpaved reality of infrastructure development in late 19th-century Tacoma, pitting laborers against local developers.
- The Shadowed Life of a Russian Emigré
A man pursued from London to New York and Denver finds himself under arrest for arson in Seattle, caught in the web of international extradition.
- The Ghost of Fort Steilacoom: Workers Cheated Out of Their Wages
A group of laborers at the new asylum construction site speak out against contractors and commissioners who left them unpaid and used rot-prone materials.
- The Strict Rules of Territorial Ballot Boxes
Before the secret ballot was standardized, Washington Territory enacted stern penalties to prevent election-day fraud, coercion, and liquor-fueled chaos.
- The Shadowy Real Estate Dealings of Louis R. Kidd
A local legal battle reveals a trail of suspicious property transfers designed to shield assets from creditors in the middle of a city boom.
- The $40 Forgery That Fooled Seattle’s Hardware Elite
A dashing stranger with a dark mustache and bare chest walks into W.P. Boyd & Co., flashes a forged check from the Seattle Hardware Company, and vanishes with $40 in cash—leaving behind only a single typo that saves the victim from total ruin.
- The Jury Struggles with a High-Stakes Financial Scandal
As the White forgery trial nears its conclusion in a Seattle courtroom, the jury is reportedly deadlocked and leaning toward acquittal, leaving the city in suspense.