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Texas Oilman Pleads Guilty In Oil For Food Scandal

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Oct 1, 2007 8:30 am US/Central

Texas Oilman Pleads Guilty In Oil For Food Scandal

NEW YORK (AP) ― Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he paid millions of dollars to Iraqi officials to illegally win contracts connected to the U.N. oil-for-food program.

Wyatt told the judge in federal court in Manhattan that he agreed in December 2001 to advise others to pay a surcharge into an Iraqi account in Jordan in violation of a rule calling for no direct payments to Iraq.

The plea deal calls for Wyatt, 83, to be sentenced to 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, set up to finance Iraqi imports of necessities, became corrupted in 2000 when Iraqi officials began demanding illegal surcharges in return for contracts to buy Iraqi oil. The program ran from 1996 to 2003.

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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