Teapot Dome is an oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Warren G. Harding but did not come to light until after Harding's death in 1923. In 1921, by executive order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and at Elk Hills, California, were transferred from the Navy Department. to the Department of the Interior. The oil reserves had been set aside for the navy by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1922, Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to Harry F. Sinclair, an oil operator, and the Elk Hills field to Edward L. Doheny. These transactions became the subject of a Senate investigation conducted in 1922 and 1923 by Sen. Thomas J. Walsh. It was found that in 1921, Doheny had lent Fall $100,000, interest-free, and that upon Fall's retirement as Secretary of the Interior in March 1923 Sinclair also loaned him a large amount of money. The investigation led to criminal prosecutions. Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes. Convicted of the latter charge, he was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000. In another trial for bribery Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted, although Sinclair was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate and for employing detectives to shadow members of the jury in his case. The oil fields were restored to the U.S. government through a Supreme Court decision in 1927.
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