Howard Colwell Hopson (May 8, 1882 – December 22, 1949) was an American businessman who was convicted of defrauding Americans of more than $20 million (roughly million dollars in ). Hopson built his company, Associated Gas and Electric (AG&E) into one of the largest electricity providing companies of the era. At its peak, AG&E was the country's third largest provider of electricity, and the fifth largest holding company. Born in 1882, Hopson went to the University of Wisconsin and George Washington University. After being hired by both the Interstate Commerce Commission and New York Public Service Commission, he struck out on his own and opened a consulting company. In the late 1910s, Hopson purchased a controlling interest in Associated Gas and Electric, and would grow it into multi international company serving 2 million people. In the late 1930s, Hopson was discovered to have stolen $20 million from the company and sentenced to years in prison. He was released in 1943, and died in 1949. Hopson quickly became a figurehead of robber barons and corruption, and his example led directly to the passing of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, Securities Act of 1933, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Early life Hopson was born in 1882 in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, the son of a nursery salesman (Edgar Delos Hopson (December 16, 1851 – June 11, 1913), and Mary Colwell (November 28, 1856- November 14, 1930). In his early years, Hopson worked in a brick and wire factory, sold newspapers, and edited a country newspaper. He attended the University of Wisconsin, studying under Richard T. Ely and working as an assistant to John R. Commons, in 1901, and got a master's degree at George Washington University. Hopson served as the assistant editor of the Jefferson County Union, a local newspaper. In 1907, he was hired by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The following year, Hopson gained a law degree, and his M.A. in 1910, being admitted to serve before the Supreme Court three years later. He married Elanor Evans of Binghamton, New York on August 5, 1921. She later in 1923 committed suicide by jumping out of an apartment. On October 26, 1908 the New York Public Service Commission hired Hopson as a secretary of the President, five years later placing him as its head of Division of Capitalization. From 1908-1915, he was one of the key men in