Founding Crimes: A Forensic CFO Reimagines the American Revolution

Tolly utilizes his four decades of experience investigating corporate fraud to scrutinize the foundational documents of the United States. Structured as a legal case file, the book presents twenty-seven exhibits and ten witness accounts to reconstruct events like the seizure of John Hancock’s sloop Liberty and the 1795 Yazoo land scandal. By framing the Declaration of Independence as a signed confession of treason, Tolly invites readers to act as the jury in a trial of the nation's architects.

Despite the provocative premise, the narrative maintains a clinical, even-handed approach. Tolly argues that while the men who built the country were often lawbreakers by the standards of their era, their fractiousness ultimately forged a resilient system. The book, published by Calder County Press, arrives ahead of the July 4, 2026, semiquincentennial celebrations and serves as the inaugural volume in a series dedicated to re-examining American history through the lens of forensic accounting.