The Teapot Dome Scandal, one of the biggest political corruption cases in U.S. history, began on April 7, 1922, when U.S. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall secretly leased Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming and Elk Hills oil reserves in California to private companies without competitive bidding. The leases were awarded to Harry F. Sinclair of Sinclair Oil and Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum in exchange for bribes totaling about $400,000. The scandal was exposed through a Senate investigation in 1923, led by Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, revealing the corrupt dealings. Fall was later convicted of accepting bribes in 1929, making him the first U.S. cabinet member to serve prison time. The Supreme Court invalidated the leases in 1927, returning the oil reserves to government control.