This episode is brought to you by Political Scandals, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Political Scandals on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Near the end of the Civil War, the Union Pacific Railroad Company was commissioned to build the first transcontinental railroad across the U.S. Seeing an opportunity, Union Pacific's directors contracted the work out to a shell corporation, Crédit Mobilier, and massively overcharged the federal government. They then sold shares in Crédit Mobilier back to Congressmen as bribes.