Guilty Plea in Oil for Food Scandal
An Iraqi-American has pleaded guilty in the Top oil for food scandal.
According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court in New York, Vincent agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy, violating economic sanctions, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and income tax violations. Vincent, who surrendered to the FBI on Tuesday morning in New York, faces a maximum of 28 years in prison. He also agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Justice Department into corruption in the oil-for-food program.
This is the first person to be charged, but not the last. As a recap, the oil for food program, in operation from 1996 to 2003, allowed Iraq
... to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of U.N. sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.
Here's what went wrong:
Vincent reaped millions of dollars of profits by selling to an oil company the rights to purchase that Iraqi oil," the documents said. Charles Duelfer, a former U.N. arms inspector who did a detailed survey last fall, said Saddam earned $1.5 billion through kickbacks from contracts for goods purchased through the oil-for-food program and $229,000 from surcharges on oil sold under the program.
"In consideration of Vincent's efforts on its behalf, the government of Iraq awarded Vincent and a company under his control the rights to purchase approximately 9 million barrels of oil under the oil-for-food program," the court documents said.
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