Stick Figure History ~ The Soybean Oil Scandal

No stranger to unscrupulous business practices, “a short, fat, moonfaced man with a sqeaky voice” named Tino DeAngelis had made his first fortune with a government contract: supplying questionable meat to school lunch programs. The meat supplied to the children turned out to be uninspected, and he had massively overcharged the government for it. His company declared bankruptcy, and he had to pay fines for the swindle. DeAngelis soon attempted another hustle with soybean oil. In 1963, DeAngelis crashed the commodities market and the stock exchange while attempting to corner the soybean oil market, necessitating a massive banking bailout. If you haven’t heard of this financial disaster, it is because another American tragedy overshadows it.