 Manton suffered severe financial reverses during the Great Depression and began to accept gifts and loans from persons having business before his court, some of which allegedly constituted outright bribes for selling his vote in pending patent litigation.Rumors of corruption spread and in 1939, Manton resigned under pressure of investigations by Manhattan District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, who wrote a letter to the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee recommending impeachment proceedings, and by a federal grand jury.Following his resignation, Manton was indicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York where he once sat as a judge.