Another Oil-for-Food Bribery Sentence

Daniel Plainview, the ruthless wildcatter in the movie There Will Be Blood, would be disappointed in fellow oilman, David Chalmers Jr.

Attempting to profit off other people's goodwill through illegal means, only to get caught? Tsk. Tsk.

A federal judge today sentenced Chalmers to two years in federal prison and fined him $9 million for having paid kickbacks to the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein in exchange for access to Iraq's oil.

Chalmers pleaded guilty last summer to buying Iraqi oil between 2000 and 2003, and bribing government officials to do so. At the time, Iraq was subject to a United Nations trade embargo. Oil sales were permitted only to raise cash to help Iraqi citizens attain basic necessities like food and medicine.

At the same time Chalmers was sentenced, so were two companies he operated, Bayoil (USA), Inc. and Bayoil Supply & Trading Ltd. The companies were sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to give their ill-gotten profits to the Development Fund of Iraq.

Several other executives have been convicted for their roles in this scheme, including Coastal Corp. founder Oscar Wyatt. He repaid more than $11 million to the Development Fund of Iraq.

by Jennifer Lai