jan 1, 1872 - Credit Mobilier Scandal

Description:

Credit Mobilier A joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was involved in a scandal in 1872 in which high government officials were accused of accepting bribes. The Union Pacific Railroad company had been hired to build part of the transcontinental railway. Instead of hiring outside contractors to complete the construction, however, Union Pacific vice president Thomas Durant and Union Pacific's other largest stockholders organized their own construction company—Crédit Mobilier—and awarded the UP building contract to themselves.

Significance: The scandal also showed how corruption tainted Gilded Age politics, and the lengths railroads and other economic interests would go to assure and increase profits.

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