"Cannot Convict Millionaire Here”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 336, 23 April 1928, Page 9

"Cannot Convict Millionaire Here”

BITTER U.S. SENATORS OIL MAGNATE ACQUITTED (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian Press Association) Received 9.5 a.m. WASHINGTON, Sunday. The jury acquitted H. F. Sinclair in the criminal and civil court actions growing out of the Teapot Dome oil scandals, and by its verdict rejected the unanimous decisions of the States Supreme Court and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals that the Teapot Dome transactions had been fraudulent and corrupt. The jury was out less than two hours, and at no time was there any danger of a verdict of guilty, only one or two of the jurors having a slight difficulty in making up their minds. The verdict caused a great surprise, and it is now undecided whether A. B. Fall, formerly Secretary of the Interior, who was co-defendant with Sinclair, will be tried on the same charges of fraud. Senator. G. W. Norris, Nebraska, said: “We ought to pass a law that no man worth a hundred million dollars should be tried for a crime.” Senator G. P. Nye said: “You cannot convict a millionaire here.”

When the lease of the Teapot Dome Oilfields was annulled by the United States Supreme Court, the decision of the court contained the following: “Fall so favoured Sinclair and the making of the lease and agreement that it was not possible for him loyally and faithfully to serve the interests of the United States or impartially to consider the applications of others for leases in reserve, and the lease and agreement were made fraudulently by means of collusion and conspiracy between them.” Litigation *in the United States oil scandal has been going on for four years. There were four indictments, one charging Fall, formerly Secretary of the Interior, with accepting a bribe from Doheny and defrauding the Government in leasing the reserves to Edward L. Doheny, the multi-millionaire oil magnate; Doheny with bribing Fall; Fall and Doheny with conspiring in connection with California oil reserves; and Fall and Sinclair with conspiracy to defraud the Government in leasing the Teapot Dome reserves.