The Coconino sun., 1922-10-13
PROMINENT POLITICIANS
 INDICTED BY GRAND JURY

making public here today of county grand jury indictments against Harry
 s. Ross, former state treasurer; Nit
 Sims, former secretary of state; Guy Acuff and Alfred Seiboth, former ap- praisers of the state land department, and P. K. Lewis, former president of the defunct Central bank of Phoenix, details of the big $50,000 Maricopa land scandal are out.
 The old land ring at the capitol has been exposed, an interesting chapter in the affairs leading up to the fail ure of the Bank of Phoenix has been written and Governor Campbell's charges of incompetency against cer-
 tain members of the old state land board have been more than substan- tiated.
 The defendants mentioned are charged with defrauding the state of $50, ,000 in that they 'unlawfully, wick ly, fraqdulently and feloniously con- spired, combined, confederated and agreed among themselves to cheat and defraud the state by subtle, fraudulent, false and indirect means and divers artful, unlawful and dis honest devices and practices" by ob- taining from the state $50,000 in a manner not authorized by law.
 This sum of money, according to the indictments was secured from the so-called state loan board at time when Governor Campbell was absent from the state, and the governor did not sign the approval for the loan. The board was made up at that time of the governor, State Treasurer Ross and Secretary of State Sims.
 The part played by Lewis in fur therance of the alleged conspiracy, ac- cording to the indictments, was to cause certain parcels of lands, locat- ed in the vicinity of Maricopa, to be conveyed to certain persons who would apply for state farm loans in the sum of $5,000 each. It is charged also that he induced number of per sons to sign false affidavits as to the value of the lanG and that in other instances the names of the supposed bona fide applicants were forged by Lewis.
 On receipt of these applications, Ross, it is charged, would send them to the land commissioner, who under certain circumstances is required to make an appraisal of land for which a state loan is pending. In these cases, however, it is charged, the ap- plications were sent over to the land office by Ross without the trouble of first examining the assessment rolls to determine theIr true value, which the tax assessor placed at S25 an acre.
 Acuff and Seipoth were the duly appointed appraisers of the land de- partment and supposedly were carry ing out the orders of their superior officer, w. H. Eoeur, former state land comm'ss; oner. 1t is charged in the indictment, however, that they agreed to appraise the land in ques- tion in excess of the actual market salue, namely, at S150 per acre, bas- ng such appraisal upon the improve nents hereinafter to be placed upon he land and not upon it's actual value. his appraisal, it is claimed, was un- Ter the direction and persuasion of Lewis.
 It is specifically charged in the in- lictment that time was selected when Thomas E. Campbell, governor and ex-officio member of the loan board, was absent in which to pass lpon and allow the loans in question. The state turned over $50,000 to ten applicants, it IS alleged, and the $50,- 100 was turned back by the applicants o Lewis. who accepted the ordinary 'orm of mortgage.
 Referring to this deal, Governor Thomas E. Campbell in an address the 'ther night took occasion to point out hat the state law requires that all oans be approved by the governor, y the state treasurer and by the sec ctary of state. The assumption that l wo separate approvals only were nec- ,ssary, is unfounded in law, it is laimed. The governor also pointed ut that his absence from the state n this occasion was at the time he | vas in Chicago putting through sue essful fight to have reclamation and .ocd roads blanks inserted in the Re ublican national platform, two issues |