 His oil interests were the first acquired by Standard Oil, and he became a trustee of that firm.He was charged with bribing members of the Ohio Legislature to attain a Senate seat for his father (before the U.S. Senate was directly elected), and with bribing the Democratic Party to name his brother-in-law United States Secretary of the Navy, though the charges were dropped.Payne was a yachtsman and built the steam yacht "Aphrodite" in 1898.