NEW YORK (AFP) — A Texas oilman was sentenced to a year and a day in jail Tuesday after pleading guilty to charges of paying millions of dollars in bribes in connection with the UN-run oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Oscar Wyatt, 83, pleaded guilty in October to participating in a scheme to pay kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government in return for oil under the scandal-tainted UN program between mid-2000 and 2003.
As part of his plea deal, Wyatt agreed to pay more than 11 million dollars in restitution, which prosecutors said would go to the Development Fund of Iraq, set up by the United Nations after the US-led invasion of 2003.
"By participating in this scheme, Wyatt and others diverted millions of dollars that otherwise would have been available for humanitarian purchases," prosecutors said in a statement.
Wyatt had faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The oil-for-food program ran from 1996 to 2003 allowing Iraq -- under a trade embargo since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 -- to sell oil in return for cash to buy food and medicine.
In 2000 Saddam began making the right to purchase its oil under the UN program conditional upon the buyer's willingness to pay kickbacks.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
