Samuel Pandolfo
Samuel Conner Pandolfo (November 22, 1874 – January 27, 1960) was an American businessman who founded the Pan Motor Car Company, which built cars in St. Cloud, Minnesota from 1917 to 1919. He raised about $9.5 million from stock buyers and the plant produced 737 cars. The company also fulfilled several U.S. government war contracts during those two years. However, Pandolfo was convicted of mail fraud for promoting the company with misleading materials and served a three-year sentence in Leavenworth.
The government said Pandolfo defrauded about 70,000 stockholders by the way he marketed the stock. Supporters argue that his idea was to let the average person own stock, and that his downfall came from his beliefs as much as from any misdeeds.
Pandolfo’s early career began in education. In 1899 he became the superintendent of schools in Las Cruces, New Mexico Territory. In 1901 he started selling insurance and found he could earn more money that way, so he left teaching to form the Pandolfo Insurance Company, which operated across several western states. He later claimed to have placed nearly $100 million on the books of the companies he represented. After a crop failure in 1916, he left insurance for the automobile business.
Pandolfo was familiar with cars, having owned many of them. He believed a good car should handle rough back roads, give space for the driver to sleep if needed, and carry extra supplies for sparsely populated areas. He incorporated Pan Motor Company in Delaware and sold stock for $10 a share. Half of the money went into a “surplus fund” for promotions and expenses; the other half went into the capital fund. Each stock certificate carried a par value of $5.
St. Cloud was chosen for the plant because of nearby iron ore, two major railroads, a deep-water port in Duluth, a capable workforce, and plentiful power. The Pan plant covered 22 acres and included a large drop-forge operation. The town even promoted the enterprise with a big Fourth of July event and new housing for workers, creating an area locals nicknamed Pantown.
Trouble began when a Minnesota advertising group complained that Pandolfo was spending more on promotion than the charter allowed. The complaint was dismissed, but in November 1918 a federal grand jury in Fergus Falls indicted Pandolfo on four counts of using the mails to promote a fraud. After a quick demand for trial and a government request for more time, a judge dismissed some charges, which slowed stock sales further.
The effort to promote the Pan Model A continued, but a new indictment followed in February 1919. Pandolfo and Pan Motor officers faced seven counts of mail fraud for sending misleading materials through the mail, including a flyer that showed an airplane image not actually drawn from an airplane. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, known for his later role in baseball, presided and often ruled against Pandolfo. By the end of February, the plant was producing the Model A, and about 70 cars had been built that month, but public opinion had turned against the company.
Pandolfo was convicted, and the company’s reputation suffered. It continued some production in his absence, but the bitter publicity made it hard to raise more money, and the Pan Motor Company eventually closed for lack of funds. Pandolfo surrendered to Chicago authorities on April 5, 1923, and spent two and a half years of a three-year sentence at Leavenworth. He returned to St. Cloud in October 1926 to a warm welcome and the remark, “You don’t meet a crook with a brass band.”
Only five Pan cars are known to exist today. Some are in private hands, one is in the Pantowners Car Club in St. Cloud, and one is in the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Pan Motor Company Office and Sheet Metal Works building in St. Cloud still stands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Pandolfo suffered a stroke in December 1959 and died January 27, 1960, in Fairbanks, Alaska.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 17:25 (CET).