In 1920, when Peter Smith was the Ontario Treasurer, the United Farmers leadership contracted with Aemilius Jarvis to acquire and retire three series of previously issued Succession Duty free bonds.
The only hint of any impropriety before this had arisen in 1922, when a legislative committee had questioned why A.H. Pepall, a close friend of Smith, had been paid the then large sum of $C80 per day for the trip, in which he seemed to have done little actual work.
But, in an illogical twist, the elder Jarvis and Smith were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the government.
[citation needed] Aemilius Jarvis -a prominent businessman and sports figure- was convicted on the charge of conspiracy, despite the fact that he had saved the provincial government millions of dollars in the retirement of the Succession Duty free bonds.
Released from jail in six months, he spent the remainder of his life protesting his innocence [3] which was proven when he took the stand, in the trial of Andrew Pepall.