Teapot Dome Scandal III

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Government experts suspected that oil was being drained from government land into private wells on the edge of national oil reserves in the west. To protect these reserves, oil was being pumped out under contract and resold to the government for above ground storage. In trouble financially, Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall in the spring of 1922 arranged private leases in exchange for cash, bond, and interest-free loans of $400,000 in cash or bonds.