Houston oilman Wyatt to be sentenced in U.N. oil-for-food case

November 27, 2007 
Associated Press 
Source: http://www.ktre.com/global/story.asp?s=7413315&ClientType=Printable

NEW YORK (AP) - Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. heads to federal court in New York today for sentencing in the United Nations oil-for-food case.

The 83-year-old oilman pleaded guilty on October First to charges that he paid millions of dollars to Iraqi officials to illegally win contracts related to the U.N. program. Wyatt told a Manhattan federal judge that he agreed in December 2001 to advise others to pay a surcharge into an Iraqi account in Jordan in violation of a program rule calling for no direct payments to Iraq.

Wyatt's plea deal calls for a sentence of 18 to 24 months in prison, unless the judge decides otherwise. He also has agreed to forfeit $11 million.

The U.N. oil-for-food program became corrupted in 2000 when Iraqi officials began demanding illegal surcharges in return for contracts to buy Iraqi oil. The oil for food program ran from 1996 to 2003.

Prosecutors said Wyatt had such a close relationship with Iraq that he was able to meet personally with Saddam Hussein in December 1990 to argue for the release of Americans being held as potential shields in the event of a U.S.-Iraq war.

The government insisted that Wyatt later took advantage of that relationship to secure the first contract under the oil-for-food program and to continue to receive oil deals after other American companies were shut off.