U.S Secretary of the Interior, resigned over ethically questionable management of the nations oil resources. In 1921, President Warren Harding appointed Fall as Secretary of the Interior. In that same year, control of Naval Petroleum Reserves at Elk Hills, California, Buena Vista, California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming was handed to the Department of the Interior under executive order from President Harding. Later that year Fall, as head of the department, decided that two of his friends, Harry F. Sinclair (Mammoth Oil Corporation) and Edward L. Doheny (Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company), should be allowed to lease part of these Naval Reserves without any competitive bidding. In Senate hearings on the matter, Edward Doheny admitted that he had lent Fall $100,000 interest-free. Some accused Fall of conspiracy and of accepting a bribe. In 1928, Fall was convicted of lying to the Senate committee when he declared that he had not accepted any money. Fall was found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Albert Fall had made the words “Teapot Dome” a synonym for scandal in the United States. In 1927, the Supreme Court decided that the oil fields would be returned to the U.S. government.