Colgate Hoyt

He was a director of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and one of the founders of Everett, Washington, where a main street is named after him.

The situation was uncovered by Gates who was asked to assess investment sites on his due diligence travels for Rockefeller's philanthropic efforts.

In reality, he was losing that amount daily while Hoyt and Colby were ostensibly using their connections to inflate speculative activity in local real estate.

Rockefeller, Gates, and possibly George Rogers (of Standard Oil) found that Hoyt and Colby had been sending statements with falsified or misleading financial values.

[2] It is unclear whether Hoyt or Colby engaged in illegal activity and there is no evidence they originally planned to defraud Rockefeller, though their actions would likely be considered fraudulent by modern standards.

Rockefeller, known to be easy on family and friends,[2] did not pursue legal remedies and Hoyt appears to have recovered professionally.