Robert Fielding Kent disputes the reliability of the claim that the Kirtand Bank failed due to Warren Parrish purportedly stealing $25,000.
Robert Fielding Kent, "The Growth of the Mormon Church in Kirkland Ohio" (PhD Thesis; Indiana University, 1957), 203-5
A further excuse for failure was evolved in the general bitterness and apostacy which followed in the wake of economic disaster . . . The story was told that Warren Parrish, . . . had stolen twenty five thousand dollars of the bank’s money, . . . It is most likely that the story is not true, for no valid record exists which charges him with culpability; . . . He may have retained possession of money printed by the society after it had declined in value. . . . It is known that Brigham Young, who had no official position in the bank, had large quantities of Kirtland notes, and that they were the official currency among the Saints soon after their arrival in Salt Lake Valley. Yet, he is not accused of fraud or theft.