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About Ronald Finney
- Ronald Tucker Finney (September 18, 1898 - October 1, 1961) was a convicted forger at the center of one of the biggest political scandals in Kansas history, known as the Kansas Bond Scandal, involving over $1 million in forged municipal bonds.Ronald Finney was born in Woodson County, Kansas to Warren and Mabel (Tucker) Finney.
- His father owned several telephone companies and was president of Fidelity State and Savings Bank in Emporia, Kansas.
- Finney graduated from Cornell University in 1921 and then worked for his fathers' bank as a bond salesman. In June 1933, an investigation started when bank examiners questioned the authenticity of $150,0000 in bonds held by National Bank of Topeka as collateral.
- State Treasurer T.B.
- (Tom) Boyd resigned, after admitting he had given access to the state treasury vaults to Finney, who took some bonds so that he could forge them.
- Governor Alf Landon sent the Kansas National Guard to guard the vaults at the statehouse until state accountants could check Boyd's records.
- Initially they discovered $600,000 in forged bonds in the vaults, with more forged bonds found at a Chicago brokerage.
- The forged bonds were given to the state as collateral for deposits at banks controlled by the Finney's family.
- or used as collateral for loans.Three banks that were controlled by the Finney family failed in August 1933 as a result of the forgeries: Fidelity State and Savings Bank in Emporia, Eureka State Bank in Eureka and Farmers State Bank in Neosho Falls.
- Ronald Finney was arrested in August 1933 and charged with dealing in forged securities.
- He pleaded guilty in December 1933 to 31 counts of forgery after an insanity defense failed, and was sentenced to 31 to 635 years in prison.
- State Treasurer Tom Boyd was convicted in January 1934 of mail fraud and was sentenced to a term of four to ten years in prison.
- In December 1933, Finney's father, Warren Finney, pleaded guilty to embezzlement.
- He was sentenced to 12 consecutive prison terms ranging from three to 50 years after the judge had ignored a recommendation for a much more lenient sentence.
- Warren Finney committed suicide in June 1935 after his appeal failed.
- Attorney General Roland Boynton and State Auditor Will J.
- French were impeached, but acquitted.
- Ronald Finney was released from prison in 1945.
- After prison, Finney did writing for trade journals.
- He died of acute bronchitis and emphysema in 1961. William Lindsay White wrote a novel called "What People Said" based on the Kansas Bond Scandal.
- White was the son of William Allen White, the editor of the Emporia Gazette and a nationally known figure in journalism and political life.
- The White and Finney families were friends and neighbors.This was the second major political scandal in Kansas involving government bonds.
- In 1862, Governor Charles L.
- Robinson was impeached by his political enemies for his alleged role in the sale of state and war bonds, although he was exonerated.
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