Answer:
New York’s Tweed Ring
William M. Tweed, or "Boss Tweed", started out his career as a New York City fireman and then began working his way up the political ladder until he was elected into the State Senate in 1867. Tweed gathered a small ring of bigwigs around him, these men were largely in control of New York City's finances. Tweed's Ring was essentially in control of New York City until 1870, using embezzlement, bribery, and kickbacks so that they could siphon massive chunks of the city's budget into their own pockets - anywhere from $40 million to $200 million. Companies that were under the control of the Tweed Ring would bill the city for work that wasn't done or they would overprice work that they had done, and the kickbacks would filter into the pockets of Tweed and his cronies. Those same companies, under city contracts would do the job poorly so that the work would need to be repaired shortly, which would then be done by other companies controlled by the Tweed Ring. William Tweed also had a large part in New York City's transportation system, so he delayed the construction of the subway system for years. Tweed and his ring of followers were eventually discovered, but only due to the investigative journalism by the New York Times and by the political cartoons in Harper's Weekly, which were done by Thomas Nast. The men involved were all tried, Tweed's trial ended with him being convicted of forgery and larceny and was then given a 12 year sentence in jail. He was actually released in only one year but was soon arrested again and sued by New York City in a $6 million civil suit. He fled to Cuba in 1875, and then to Spain, but was arrested immediately upon arrival there and was sent back to New York where he was sent to prison and then died there in 1878.
The Credit Mobilier Scandal
In 1864 the Union Pacific Railroad created the Crédit Mobilier of America construction company as part of an attempt to earn more money and falsely prove to the US Government and citizens that they would contract companies outside of their business. That same year Congressman Oakes Ames began to hand out cash bribes and discounted shares of the Crédit Mobilier company to fellow congressmen in order to gain more votes and favorable actions for the Union Pacific company. Then, the Union Pacific contracted the Crédit Mobilier company to build the eastern portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad at rates significantly above the average railroad construction cost. These construction contracts brought high profits to the Crédit Mobilier company, which was owned by the Union Pacific's directors and principal stockholders, who divided the outsize profits with the Union Pacific stockholders. The Union Pacific was able to circumvent rules that required them to receive full payment for stock issued at par by writing bank checks for Crédit Mobilier to pay them, then Crédit Mobilier would purchase stock for the Union Pacific using these checks. The main way that Crédit Mobilier and Union Pacific were able to get away with it was by using indirect billing and cash for the payment. The construction of the railroad required large sums of money for construction and Crédit Mobilier prepared reports that they sent to congress via Union Pacific with exaggerated costs for the construction. In the end, US Congress paid $94,650,287 to Crédit Mobilier through Union Pacific, while Crédit Mobilier incurred operating costs of only $50,720,959 and the Union Pacific earned $44 million. The scandal was discovered by the New York newspaper The Sun in 1872 There were 15 politicians involved in this part of the scandal including the Vice President Schuyler Colfax, James Garfield who would eventually become the President of the United States; and many congress representatives.
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