Wyatt Pleads Guilty at U.N. Oil-For-Food Trial

Wyatt Pleads Guilty at U.N. Oil-For-Food Trial

www.foxnews.com

NEW YORK — 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 United Nations oil-for-food program.

Wyatt told the federal judge 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 program rule calling for no direct payments to Iraq.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Just another example of the U.N.'s utter incompetence, corruption and irrelevance as a world body. The sooner we overhaul the organization or disband it all together the better off the world will be. It seems that the only benefactors of the U. N. is tyrants and dictators.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is interesting...

The nearly $5,000 Clinton accepted from the Wyatts dates from her 2000 and 2006 Senate campaigns. But her spokesman did not respond to questions about whether her Senate campaign would return the contributions.

www.politico.com...

Seems Hillary keeps having problems with donors... I wonder why that is? It's also telling that she seems so much more reluctant to part with the cash once it's been tied to some unsavory donor.

Is this the beginning? Are they going after others namely Kofi Annan?

I hope they blow this scandal wide open but I doubt it as too many are in very powerful positions.

Funny you mention Hillary,

I was just watching a news report on FNC discussing what Bill's role will be should she be elected President and he said:

Hillary will be the Decider

The Decider? wasn't there something going around about the current President and this moniker?

I thought I had seen this used before.




edit: had to add a word, I always think faster than I type

[edit on 2007/10/1 by JacKatMtn]

reply to post by JacKatMtn


While I'd love to see that fraud Kofi Annan hauled into Federal Court, I know it's not going to happen. I find the silence on the subject telling though... Where are the usual "Halliburton chanters" of all the misdeeds? I guess this doesn't suit the agenda because it demonstrates their beloved U.N.'s complicity in the debacle, and the collateral issue of Hillary and her questionable fundraising.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Re-organize, re-structure, and remove the current UN. Where ever the path of corruption leads, so should the investigation and the charges follow. If Mr. Annon has something to do with it, lets get his ass into a court (which district would he be charged in? Which country would charge him?)

The level of corruption just keeps going deeper.

Why are you people blaming the UN organization? Not that I care for them myself...

The article did not mention one single thing that the UN did wrong.

This happened outside their control, without their consent, and without their knowledge.

And you wonder why no one replys to this thread.....

reply to post by Malichai


Who is wondering what?

There's been no mention regarding the number of replies in this thread. The mention of U.N. incompetence and complicity is appropriate, as it has been a topic of some note (though probably not as much as it should be since it's darn near impossible to blame Bush on this one).

Saddam's dictatorship was able to siphon off an estimated $10 billion from the Oil-for-Food program through oil smuggling and systematic thievery, by demanding illegal payments from companies buying Iraqi oil, and through kickbacks from those selling goods to Iraq--all under the noses of U.N. bureaucrats. The members of the U.N. staff administering the program have been accused of gross incompetence, mismanagement, and possible complicity with the Iraqi regime in perpetrating the biggest scandal in U.N. history.

www.heritage.org...

MARGARET WARNER: So should Kofi Annan go now over the Oil-for-Food scandal? To debate that, we turn to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota-- as we just saw, he's chairman of the Senate subcommittee that's been investigating the Oil-for-Food Program, and this week called on Annan to resign; and Timothy Wirth, a former Democratic senator and former undersecretary of state. He's now president of the privately funded United Nations Foundation. Welcome to you both.

www.pbs.org...

In January the Iraqi newspaper Al Mada published a list of people and organizations, including UN personnel, who supposedly received vouchers from the Iraqi government to purchase oil. In April the General Accounting Office (since renamed the Government Accountability Office) published a report claiming that the Oil for Food (OFF) program had been rife with corruption and that through smuggling and kickbacks, Saddam Hussein had managed to acquire more than $10 billion in illicit funds. A series of Congressional investigations followed, featuring conservative witnesses who pilloried the UN for incompetence, corruption and general unfitness. In the latest hearings chaired by Republican Norm Coleman, the committee staff claimed that Saddam's access to illicit funds totalled over $21 billion--twice the sum claimed by the CIA--and that the money went to terrorists around the world, not to mention (rather astonishingly) the post-Saddam insurgency.

www.thenation.com...

Yeah... The U.N. had nothing to do with it...

Yeah... The U.N. had nothing to do with it...

Yet, there is no proof. Only accusations. No paper trail. No evidence.

The UN managed the program. If things happened outside of the program without their knowledge then how could the UN itself be blamed?

Because they didn't find it?

Thats absurd! By your logic we should blame Bush for 911!

[edit on 1-10-2007 by Malichai]

reply to post by Malichai


Ummm... Old billionaires don't plead guilty to felonies if there's nothing that can be proven.

I find your defense of the U.N.... Amusing.

Originally posted by Mirthful Me
reply to post by Malichai

 

Ummm... Old billionaires don't plead guilty to felonies if there's nothing that can be proven.

I find your defense of the U.N.... Amusing.

What he admitted to had nothing to do with the UN.

Why can't you understand? The UN organization and the nation of Iraq are not the same.

Yes, Iraq was under sanctions, but the person in question did not go to the UN to offer bribes/tribute.

And, didn't he say that he himself never paid tribute?

Wyatt's defense lawyers argued that their client was an American hero who never knowingly paid surcharges to the Iraqi government to win oil deals. They also said he tried to play a peaceful role in resolving conflict between the two countries.

Your whole 'blame the UN' line is all from your own mind and accusations.

Where did the UN accept bribes or allow anything that went against the UN rules?

In case you didn't know, America approved all of the sales.

And no, I am not defending the UN. I am defending truth. You are simply looking backwards to excuse what Bush did when invading Iraq.

reply to post by Malichai


What don't you understand?

Who structured the Oil for Food Program?

Who was charged with monitoring the Oil For Food Program?

Who allowed the Oil for Food Program to be misused by Saddam Hussein?

Who other than you has mentioned Iraq?

What is your agenda?

As for this external quote that you convieniently failed to provide a link to:

Wyatt's defense lawyers argued that their client was an American hero who never knowingly paid surcharges to the Iraqi government to win oil deals. They also said he tried to play a peaceful role in resolving conflict between the two countries.

www.wtop.com...

Yeah... They argued that right up until he pleaded guilty today. Now he's going to do hard time in a Federal slam. I'm betting that if he never "knowingly paid surcharges" he'd still have those lawyers making that argument rather than working up arguments for his sentencing.

Here is page one from the story, an the current disposition of Oscar Wyatt:

NEW YORK (AP) - Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. pleaded guilty Monday to a federal conspiracy charge, abruptly ending his trial by admitting he approved a $200,000 payment directly to an Iraqi bank account knowing it violated the rules of the U.N. oil-for-food program.

Under the plea agreement, Wyatt, 83, will be sentenced to 18 to 24 months in prison and forfeit $11 million.

www.wtop.com...

Any further attempts to manipulate the truth?

Should we bring Kojo Annan into the discussion?

Who allowed the Oil for Food Program to be misused by Saddam Hussein?

Please answer this question. I don't know and its not said in any of your links.

Who allowed it at the UN?

Isn't it possible that no one at the UN allowed it?

Its not the UN on trial here, and your conclusions are not based on fact.

If you look at your own article he says the plea was made to end it all. He still denies giving them tribute.

Should we bring Kojo Annan into the discussion?

Please do. He got a job with a company that also had contracts in Iraq although he had nothing to do with those projects.

He got a golden parachute for the deals he made.

No one has shown one single link to Iraq in that.

reply to post by Malichai


I guess you don't know how the U.S. Judicial system works... When you allocute in court (you can't just plead guilty), you must detail what you are pleading guilty to... This is to prevent exactly what you are claiming is happening... "Oh, I just plead guilty to get it over with... I really didn't do it..." Sorry, it can't happen.

I also find it incredulous that you would buy into an 83 year old billionaire rolling over and accepting hard federal time (85% minimum sentence served). He might very well die in prison, and he knows it. Please, your arguments are so far removed from reality that you are now claiming it's "my source" that supports your argument, when in fact it's your own (you merely neglected to provide a link) that you originally posted. The U.N. is definitely on trial, and I hope that we drag every one of those lying complicit pieces of marine mammal refuse into the Federal Courthouse in New York and convict them of fraud, embezzlement, bribery, and RICO violations. I realize that it won't happen, but there's more than enough evidence to support it.

As for Kojo... My bet is he won't be visiting the U.S. anytime soon, just in case.

Asked about these payments, Mr Annan senior said: "Naturally, I was very disappointed and surprised." He added that he had not known the payments had continued for so long.

Kojo Annan lives in Lagos, Nigeria, but friends there said last week that he was not at home. Simon Smith, his British lawyer, insisted that all payments his client received from Cotecna were "entirely proper" and "none of them have anything whatsoever to do with the UN oil-for-food programme".

www.telegraph.co.uk.../news/2004/12/05/wkojo05.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/12/05/ixworld.html

Of course not... Just like the lawyer said...

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) said he was unaware his son received $30,000 a year for over five years from a Swiss-based company under investigation in connection with suspected corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.

The disclosure of the payments was the latest embarrassment for Annan and the United Nations related to the program to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

www.foxnews.com...

One of the next big chapters in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal will involve the family of the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, whose son turns out to have been receiving payments as recently as early this year from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program.

The secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, was previously reported to have worked for a Swiss-based company called Cotecna Inspection Services SA, which from 1998-2003 held a lucrative contract with the U.N. to monitor goods arriving in Saddam Hussein's Iraq under the oil-for-food program. But investigators are now looking into new information suggesting that the younger Annan received far more money over a much longer period, even after his compensation from Cotecna had reportedly ended.

www.nysun.com...

Yeah... Kojo is clean...



[edit on 1/10/2007 by Mirthful Me]