The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery incident that took place in the United States from 1921 to 1922, during the administration of PresidentWarren G. Harding. Secretary of the InteriorAlbert Bacon Fall had leased Navypetroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming and two other locations in California to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding. In 1922 and 1923, the leases became the subject of a sensational investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Fall was later convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies and became the first Cabinet member to go to prison. No person was ever convicted of paying a bribe, however.