UNITED STATES OIL LEASES

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 72, 18 December 1926, Page 11

UNITED STATES OIL LEASES

FALL AND DOHENY ACQUITTED ON CONSPIRACY CHARGE Washington. December 16. In the oil scandal trial Albert B. Fall and Edward L. Doheny were acquitted on the charge of conspiracy to defraud the Government. The jury received the case at 3 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, and rendered their verdict at 10 o’clock this morning. The first vote showed six for acquittal and six for conviction. Later the voting was ten to two. The minority was finally won over. [During the term of office of the late President Harding allegations were made as to the leasing of certain naval oil reserves, notably “Teapot Dome,” in Utah, to the Sinclair Oil Company, in circumstances suggesting corruption. Several members of the Harding Cabinet were involved, including Senator A. B. Fall, Secretary of the Interior, and Edward Denby, Secretary of the Navy, and Harry M. Daugherty, Federal Attorney-General. A Senatorial Committee carried out an investigation, in which Theodore Roosevelt, son of the ex-President, gave important evidence, and as a result Fall, Sinclair, and Doheny were indicted. Some of the indictments were quashed by the Supreme Court, and finally, after years of delay. Fall and Doheny'were brought to trial, and now have been acquitted.]