Nation IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : 3 Get Prison Terms for Iraqi Oil Scheme

Three men were sentenced to prison in what prosecutors said were the first convictions under the United States’ embargo on trade with Iraq. Judge Kendall Sharp, in federal court in Orlando, Fla., ordered Ondina Maria Sosa and Augustus Wolf von Hartz, both of Miami, and Manuel Romero-Fernandez of Malaga, Spain, to serve 2 1/2 years each in prison and pay fines of up to $50,000. The men were found guilty of trying to sell 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil to government informants. They were arrested after they signed contracts of $21 million for oil and $1.5 million in broker fees. The Iraqi Sanctions Act, an executive order signed by President Bush last year, prohibits dealing in or conspiring to trade in Iraqi products while inside the United States.