Edward Donegan was a casual or odd-job laborer in 1919 who became a millionaire within about four months through bootlegging

Rum-running

Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...

 following the implementation of National Prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

 of alcohol in the U.S. in January 1920. Through the use of an insider within the Bureau of Prohibition

Bureau of Prohibition

The Bureau of Prohibition was the federal law enforcement agency formed to enforce the National Prohibition Act of 1919, commonly known as the Volstead Act, which backed up the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and transportation...

, he was able to illegally withdraw alcohol from warehouses ostensibly for legal purposes himself and also to sell fraudulent permits to other bootleggers.

Donegan’s activities were discovered after he attempted to bribe Internal Revenue Service

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

agents who called upon him in connection with another investigation. He was convicted of possessing stolen property and the intent to defraud the United States.