Texas oilman Wyatt transferred to halfway house

HOUSTON (AP) - Lawyers for Oscar Wyatt Jr., serving a 366-day sentence for conspiring to make illegal payments for Iraqi oil, say the Texas oilman has been transferred from a minimum-security federal prison to a halfway house in downtown Houston.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed to the Houston Chronicle yesterday that Wyatt was transferred to a halfway house on September 22.

Wyatt pleaded guilty in October 2007 to one count of conspiring to make illegal payments for Iraqi oil. Besides the prison sentence, he agreed to forfeit $11 million.

In pleading guilty, Wyatt acknowledged he had orchestrated a $200,000 payment to Saddam Hussein's government.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)