SCOUTING YESTERDAY | Treasurer embezzlement 'greatest criminal action South Dakota has ever known'

This week in South Dakota history: Jan. 31-Feb. 6

State treasurer of the rural credits board A.W. Ewert. Photo: Argus Leader

While 2024 brought a flurry of headlines of state workers bilking South Dakota taxpayers, a public corruption case a century earlier also captivated a state-wide audience.

A chapter in a months-long saga, the state Legislature on Feb. 4, 1925, ordered the imprisonment of South Dakota Rural Credit Treasurer Adolph Ewert after validating charges that he’d pilfered $200,000 from state coffers, equal to more than $3.5 million in today’s dollars.

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