Railroad executives overbilled their own company, then bribed Congress to look away
Executives building the Union Pacific Railroad set up a construction firm called Credit Mobilier, then had Union Pacific pay it wildly inflated prices for the exact same work, pocketing the difference as pure profit. When the scheme risked exposure, they handed out Credit Mobilier stock at steep discounts to sitting members of Congress, including the vice president, to head off investigations. Exposed by a newspaper in 1872, it became a defining symbol of Gilded Age corruption.