Posted by:
Fetal Deity
(
)
Date: July 15, 2012 12:16PM
"'Oliver Cowdery went to Philadelphia for plates to print bank notes, and Orson Hyde went to the legislature in Columbus with a petition for a bank license. It was refused. Oliver returned with plates for the Kirtland Safety Society Bank, but Orson Hyde came back without a charter. The plates were so expensive that they printed some specie anyway, writing in "Anti" before the word "Bank" and "ing" after it. The notes read, "Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company," and the paper passed as legal tender from a joint-stock company.'"
...
"'Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were tried in court for violating the law, were found guilty and fined $1,000. They appealed on the grounds that the institution was an association and not a bank; the plea was never ruled upon as the bank suspended payments and closed its doors.'"
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/josephsmithsbank.htmAlthough perhaps not technically fraudulent in the strict legal sense, Joseph Smith's actions in this specific instance, in my view, were shady at best.