Texas oilman Wyatt sentenced to year in prison

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt, 83, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on Tuesday for conspiracy in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, becoming the most prominent figure jailed over corruption in the program to buy oil from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The outspoken self-made oil tycoon was sentenced in Manhattan federal court after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October, four weeks into his criminal trial and just before prosecutors were to rest their case.

Under his plea agreement, prosecutors dropped four other counts against him, cutting short a trial in which they made a case that he paid secret kickbacks to Saddam's government to win oil contracts from Iraq.

The U.N. program was established to help Iraq sell oil to buy humanitarian supplies while it was otherwise under U.N. sanctions due to its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2751695120071127?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

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It also mentions that he has to pay $200,000 surcharge into an Iraqi account in Jordan and that he forfeits another $11 million.

To me it appears that he was handed an extremely light sentence.

Isn't he with the company that recently signed a deal, out of turn, with the Kurds for oil?

a gazillion years ago?

2 eldest sons are from wife Lynn Wyatt's first husband.

Oscar Wyatt flew to Baghdad to retrieve the hostages the Bush Boys twiddled their thumbs over trying to figure out how to fit them into their agenda. And Oscar couldn't keep his mouth shut and started talking. About the Bushes. And not very nicely. Or politely.

If everyone had listened to Oscar Wyatt about the Bushes after the first war with Iraq, there wouldn't have been a second war with Iraq.

Do not oppose the king. Or the Bushes. They will send you off to the tower and behead you.

Must be a real wake-up call for the evil old bastard, finding out that all his (and his wife's) wealth and connections can't get him out of a jail sentence......

It might surprise you to know that he was very generous through the years to Democrats and to the Democratic Party.

He is no different from the other wildcatters who all were, and are, meaner than the proverbial junk yard dog. It's a mean business. Particularly when you're up against big oil which Oscar Wyatt always was and keep in mind that George HW Bush was in their pocket. Most of our energy policies through the years have his stamp on them. He lost his Senate race to Lloyd Bentsen because of it. That race was really about the independent oilman/Bentsen versus the big oil companies/Bush.

If Lloyd Bentsen had been alive, he would have been among the many who appealed for leniency for Oscar Wyatt. They were next-door neighbors. And friends. I suspect if Ann Richards had been alive, she would have as well. Many others did. Many others who could have and should have didn't. The Clintons could have and should have but didn't. No doubt fearful of getting on Daddy Bush's bad side. Every photo you see of Bill Clinton of late is with Daddy Bush. A gentle hint there. That supporters of Hillary Clinton don't seem to get.

Oscar Wyatt didn't do anything quite a few others did. He was targeted simply because he spoke out about the Bushes. Evil old bastard? Smart old bastard. With the courage to speak out.

He is just another goddamn multimillionaire who stole millions and got a slap on the wrist. Someone shoulda planted a couple crack rocks on him so he could get some real "justice" in America.

His ruling class spats with the BushNazis are irrelevant. He's a fucking scumbag thief who should rot in jail until he dies as should anyone, no matter with 'side' of the corporatocracy he advocates, who steals millions.

Rich White Men never get the punishment they richly deserve. Apologizing for them is beyond the pale, IMO.