Interior Secretary Albert Fall secretly granted Harry Sinclair’s Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to extract oil and gas from the Teapot Dome naval petroleum reserve in Wyoming for 20 years, without competitive bidding. Fall locked the contract in his desk and instructed staff to tell no …
Albert FallHarry Sinclairpolitical-corruptionresource-extractionsystematic-corruptionregulatory-capture
Edward Doheny, oil magnate and head of Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company, delivered $100,000 in cash to Interior Secretary Albert Fall as a “loan” that was never repaid (equivalent to $1.76 million in 2024). This payment preceded Doheny’s company receiving lucrative …
Albert FallEdward Dohenypolitical-corruptionbriberyresource-extractionsystematic-corruption
President Warren G. Harding signed Executive Order 3474 transferring control of naval petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills and Buena Vista in California from the Navy Department to the Department of the Interior under Secretary Albert Fall. This transfer removed the reserves …
Warren G. HardingAlbert FallEdwin Denbyinstitutional-captureexecutive-corruptionresource-extractionregulatory-capture