Howard Hopson’s billion dollar fraud: The rise and fall of associated gas & electric company, 1921–1940

This is a case study of financial fraud. The Associated Gas & Electric Company (AG&E), controlled by Howard C. Hopson, was one of the largest utility holding companies of the ‘Roaring 20s’. Hopson’s AG&E rose spectacularly in the market boom and fell hard following the 1929 crash. Hopson tried unsuccessfully to save the company, while simultaneously enriching himself, using financial transactions that ultimately were determined to be illegal. The major policy reaction to the financial manipulations of the period, for which Hopson became a public symbol, was passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act, which mandated the ‘death’ of most electric utility holding companies.