Credit Mobilier -ME- Taylor Raatz

Credit Mobilier

The Credit Mobilier was a construction company set up by several stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad. Working for both Union Pacific and Credit Mobilier, the investors signed contracts with themselves. Credit Mobilier would then overcharge the Union Pacific and added a lot of miles onto the railroad construction. The railroad agreed to pay the inflated bills, since the same investors controlled both companies.

So when the Union Pacific railroad was completed the investors had made millions of dollars off of it. But the railroad itself was almost bankrupt due to the usage of its federal grants. One of these investors was a Congress member named Oakes Ames. An angry associate had sent a letter the New York Sun telling the members of Congress that had accepted the shares. The scandal did not hurt the Congress members that were included in Credit Mobilier.