41 Years Ago Today: Sharpstown Stock Scandal Starts

On January 18, 1971, attorneys for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in federal court in Dallas alleging stock fraud against a number of influential Texans, including Houston banker and real estate developer Frank W. Sharp, former Democratic state attorney general Waggoner Carr, and former state insurance commissioner John Osorio. The suit also named Sharp’s corporations, including the National Bankers Life Insurance Corporation and the Sharpstown State Bank. By the time the events these actions were initiating had played out, the state government would be shaken to its core and a number of promising political careers would be destroyed.

Read more about the Sharpstown Stock Scandal in the "Scandal" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!