The Bank Examiner Who Embezzled His Own Bank
A former state senator and bank examiner is convicted of looting the Palouse State Bank in Colfax — a twelve-day trial, sixty-five bank books, and $22,000 gone.
COLFAX—Guilty of embezzlement was the jury's verdict in the case against H. M. Boone, ex-State Senator, ex-State Bank Examiner and ex-president of the Palouse State Bank of this city. For twelve days the case had been before the Whitman County Court and the jury was but slightly over an hour agreeing on its verdict. The amount of embezzlement charged in the complaint on which Boone was convicted is $10,200, but additional shortages in the books of the bank are said to make the sum lost by the bank $22,000. On hearing the verdict Boone was assisted from the court room by friends. His wife is prostrated. Judge fixed the bonds at $10,000, which were furnished. Motion was made for a new trial. The case was the most exciting ever heard in Whitman County. Sixty-five bank books were admitted as exhibits. Two attorneys assisted the prosecution for the State, three assisting Boone for the defense.
“The case was the most exciting ever heard in Whitman County. Sixty-five bank books were admitted as exhibits.”
A man once entrusted with examining other people's banks was convicted of robbing his own. The story rhymes with every era of financial scandal: the watchdog turns out to be the wolf, and the losses are always larger than the first complaint admits.
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