Texan sentenced in oil-for-food deal

Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt was sentenced to one year and one day in prison 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 oil tycoon, 83, 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 Hussein’s government to win oil contracts from Iraq.