One Texas Oilman Pleads Guilty
It may not be the Texas oilmen we’d like to plead guilty, but it is going to make others think twice before they bribe dictators to do their oil deals.
Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. pleaded guilty Monday to charges that hepaid millions of dollars to Iraqi officials to illegally win contractsconnected to the United Nations oil-for-food program.
[snip]
During the trial, prosecutors demonstrated that Wyatt had such a closerelationship with Iraq that he was able to meet personally with Iraqileader Saddam Hussein in December 1990 to argue for the release ofAmericans being held as potential shields in the event of a U.S.-Iraqwar.
Prosecutors played a tape for the jury of the conversation in whichHussein promised Wyatt that Americans would be released as Wyatt andformer Texas Gov. John Connally spoke sympathetically about Iraq’splight.
The government insisted that Wyatt later took advantage of thatrelationship to secure the first contract under the oil-for-foodprogram and to continue to receive oil deals after other Americancompanies were shut off prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Speaking of Texas oilmen, last I checked there were ongoing allegations that Halliburton had bribed the Nigerian government to make their oil deals when one Dick Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO. I wonder if he’ll even be charged.
I think I’ve seen this movie before, â€Syriana†right? Good thing these are only scriptwriters’ fantasies, and not the way things work in the real world.
Ishmael – Syriana is looking more fact than fiction every day isn’t it? Excellent flick.
Bmaz – yes, amazing movie! So, if Mr. Wyatt has been convicted for â€freelancing†deals with Iraq when other US companies were shut out, when can we expect Hunt Oil to be charged for contracting with the Kurdish â€government†that the US doesnt recognize? I’m not surprised the conviction was for transactions arising out of the â€oil for food†program, which was used to tar the UN as corrupt.
Wow!
I had been following this trial in the â€Houston Chronicle.†This looks to me like a plea bargain– a few days ago Wyatt’s insanely high-priced lawyers were still holding out for his innocence.
People outside Texas may not realize how big this is. Oscar Wyatt has been a major player in Texas oil circles for decades. This gives me hope that Cheney himself may not be untouchable.
Would that this were a game of dominoes. Wyatt topples into Hunt who topples into Chevron’s CEO (Burma ties) who topples into Cheney…
Ishmael
I was wondering that. But I think the Halliburton (or Halliburton doing business with Iran) is more likely. It’s legal to undercut the govt of Iraq as Hunt as done.
Mary
Doesn’t he have ties with the Dems, though?
Different Mary, but Wyatt’s been tight with Dems and Republicans – but not neo-cons and Bushes. Hundreds of thousands in some years to Dems though, definitely.
I don’t think it shows that Cheney might be up for grabs. I think it shows that oil men who aren’t pals of the Bushes aren’t going to do as well as oilmen who are.
It has had some very weird stuff. For one thing, the court gave gov pretty unfettered ability to bring in things that had no ties to things at issue in his trial. Early on, they were asking to argue/allege/enter into evidence that Wyatt â€tipped off†Iraq to the upcoming Oct 2003 invasion. Plus they had a â€diary†that was â€found†as a part of the oil ministry docs that flowed through Chalabi’s hands.
I can’t get the link to the story to work bc it’s in yahoo archives now, but the story reported:
Another diary entry the government may introduce includes evidence Wyatt convinced U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, to deliver a speech against the war in Iraq . . .
Oh yeah – the only reason Ted Kennedy would ahve delivered a speech against the war would have been pressure from Wyatt.
He probably did do some things he shouldn’t have (and that Exxon and others were doing as well – but through different vehicles) but the whole thing smelled to me from the beginning.
FWIW, I agree with Mary.
Whether you get â€caught†depends on who your friends are. It sure seems that Wyatt had the wrong friends.
Saddam instead of Chalabi.
Ted Kennedy instead of Junya and Deadeye.
To the Repugs, â€Fair and Balanced†still means being â€fair†to your BFFs and â€unfair†to your not-friends.
See how balanced that is?
Normally I don’t make a practice of excusing the behavior of my home state’s crazy oilmen, but in this case I think Wyatt got shafted. If we threw in jail every oilman who bribed a corrupt dictator, we wouldn’t have very many left (oilmen and dictators). This was as pure a case of selective prosecution as I’ve ever seen. I’m not saying that Wyatt is innocent. He is almost certainly guilty of at least some of the crimes he was charged with. I just think he’s less guilty than many of the bigger players. Nobody would have cared if he had bribed Iraqi officials during the Iran-Iraq war.
Richard @ All Spin Zone has dug up info indicating Mr. Wyatt may be another ’Martha Stewart case’, i.e., guilty of being a democrat. GHWB apparently hates Mr. Wyatt for making him look ’weak’ in 1990 and GWB was always ’the enforcer’. Now I know all too well about conservative TX dems, but FWIW, a senior level exec at my job in TX worked for Oscar at Coastal and while one would expect a guy like that to be a bushie, this guy is disgusted by GWB and apparently has been for some time.
Eevrything I’ve ever heard about Wyatt was he is a Dem, tried and true. And that never sat well with GHWB, and sat even less well with GDubya and DeadEyed Dick, They only went after him, because they controlled the DoJ.
I also heard he extrapollated American Nationals from Iraq during the fist Gulf War, which made GHW and Jim Baker look damned bad, so this is â€karma†biting Wyatt on the ass. And this proud old man will spend his last years in jail. I’m not saying what he did wasn’t wrong. I’m saying that their may be some retribution going on. We all know elephants have amazing memories.
there, not their.. Damn….