The Disbarred Attorney Who Sold Dreams of Alberta
George P. Rossman is convicted in Seattle federal court of using the mails to peddle partnerships in a supposed Alberta land empire.
George P. Rossman, accused of using the mails to defraud by representing that he owned a large farm in Alberta, Canada, and was worth $45,000, was convicted at Seattle by a jury in the federal court. Rossman, formerly a Seattle attorney but disbarred several years ago, is alleged to have conducted Alberta land offices in nearly all the principal cities of the Pacific Northwest, selling partnerships in these offices for whatever the prospective purchaser was willing to pay.
“Rossman, formerly a Seattle attorney but disbarred several years ago, is alleged to have conducted Alberta land offices in nearly all the principal cities of the Pacific Northwest.”
Land fraud has always followed booms, and Rossman’s scheme promised Alberta farmland to buyers across the Pacific Northwest. The conviction is an early example of federal mail-fraud law being used to police a regional investment scam, a precursor to modern securities and real-estate fraud cases.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.