The scandal's true cost was a nation's faith. President Warren G. Harding had transferred control of the Navy's key oil reserves to his Interior Secretary, Albert Fall. Without competitive bids, Fall secretly leased Teapot Dome and other fields to oilmen Harry Sinclair and Edward Doheny. The bribes he received—including a $100,000 'loan' delivered in a little black bag—were worth over ~$6 million~ today. Senator Thomas Walsh's dogged Senate investigation finally exposed the scheme in 1923, after