Lawsuit targets Wyatt and others
January 5, 2009
Houston Chronicle
Original Source:  http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6195879.html http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6195879.html
Houston oilmen Oscar Wyatt and David B. Chalmers Jr. and El Paso Corp. are being sued by relatives of alleged victims of terrorist acts funded by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein because of payments made to his regime through the United Nations’ Oil-for-Food program.
Wyatt served more than nine months in federal prison and Chalmers is serving a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to funnel millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam’s regime to acquire Iraqi crude through the U.N. program.
The program was intended to use Iraq’s oil resources to provide for the basic needs of Iraqis without benefiting the regime, which was under sanctions because of Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. 
Wyatt’s payments were made through Coastal Corp., a company he founded that El Paso acquired. Houston-based El Paso paid $7.7 million to federal officials to settle charges.
“Defendants knew or should have known that Saddam and the Saddam regime were known terrorists and had committed widely publicized crimes against humanity, acts of genocide, torture and terrorism,” according to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia on behalf of 193 alleged victims and relatives.
Spokesmen and attorneys for Wyatt, Chalmers and El Paso declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Wyatt, 84, was hospitalized after suffering a stroke in November, but he is now back home and his condition is improving with daily therapy, a spokeswoman said.