There are nine investigations into various aspects of the scandal. They include a federal investigation in New York that has subpoenaed records from El Paso Corp., which acquired Wyatt's old company, Coastal Corp.; Chevron-Texaco and Exxon Mobil. All have said their oil purchases were legal.
Treasury officials recently announced that they were investigating the possibility that U.S.-based sanctions against trade in Iraq had been violated.
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In 1990, Vincent was among a small group of businessmen who fled Iraq by taxi after Hussein invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2.
Unlike the others, however, the Iraqi-born Vincent, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had a mission, according to friends and former U.S. officials: He was carrying a last-minute peace proposal to the Bush administration from Hussein, prepared by a longtime friend, Nizar Hamdoon, the former Iraqi ambassador to the U.S.
Immediately upon his return to the U.S., Vincent contacted Col. Carl Bernard, a decorated war hero with connections at the White House. The plan was reviewed by national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, who rejected it, Bernard said.
By that time, however, Vincent's role had been made clear to the U.S. government:
"Vincent was an asset that we needed and could have used but didn't," Bernard recalled of the initiative.
A few months later, with Hussein still holding hostages seized after the start of the invasion, a top aide to Rep. Charles Wilson, a Texas Democrat, asked Vincent to intervene.
The aide, Charlie Schnabel, was a squash partner of Vincent, a former Iraqi Olympic athlete. Vincent, who had gone to high school with the Iraqi oil minister and other top Iraqi officials, agreed. After speaking with top-ranking Iraqi officials, he told Schnabel that Hussein, who was trying to show the world he would cooperate, had agreed to free some of the hostages.
Schnabel then turned to Wyatt, an old acquaintance and a maverick even by the iconoclastic standards of independent Texas oilmen. Wyatt, the head of Coastal Corp., noted for his corporate takeovers and dealings with rogue nations, had long done business in Iraq.
In fact, one of Coastal's principal refineries, in Aruba, was especially configured to handle the high-sulfur Iraqi oil. Wyatt's financial success depended in part on his ability to procure Iraqi crude oil, experts said.
Wyatt volunteered the use of his plane for the mission and accompanied Vincent on the trip.
