Judge OKs $4B BP oil spill criminal settlement; BP to plead guilty to manslaughter

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

Posted: 1:21 PM
Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

By: MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge on Tuesday approved an agreement for BP PLC to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges and pay a record $4 billion in criminal penalties for the company's role in the 2010 oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Before she ruled, U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance heard testimony from relatives of 11 workers who died when BP's blown-out Macondo well triggered an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and started the spill.

BP agreed in November to plead guilty to charges involving the workers' deaths and for lying to Congress about the size of the spill from its broken well, which spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil. Much of it ended up in the Gulf and soiled the shorelines of several states. The company could have withdrawn from the agreement if Vance had rejected it.

Neither the Justice Department nor BP presented arguments to the judge before her decision in New Orleans.


Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/national/judge-oks-4b-bp-oil-spill-criminal-settlement-bp-to-plead-guilty-to-manslaughter

[rickford66]

1. So ... who goes to jail ?

I won't hold my breath.

[Hula Popper]

2. This is BS

They should get the death penalty.

[Kolesar]

4. Make BP sell Amoco, Arco, and Gulf Oil...eom

[Downtown Hound]

3. $4,000,000,000? Add about two more zeros to that figure

and that would be a fair settlement.

[WallaceRitchie]

5. NET ZERO to BP

Per this Fox Business article from 2011, BP wrote off $11.8 BILLION in Gulf spill related expenses for 2010:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/05/16/taxpayers-hook/

Criminal fine = $4 Billion
plus
Private Civil settlement = $7.8 Billion

You guessed it... a total of $11.8 Billion

[davidpdx]

9. I'm not defending BP

But I believe that is not the total cost, just the court costs. They also have fines and clean up. Last I heard the Clean Water Act fines were going to be at least $25 billion.

[Demo_Chris]

6. The fine will no doubt be written off their taxes, making it meaningless

[dipsydoodle]

7. Judge approves BP plea agreement, record $4 billion fine

(CNN) -- A federal judge in New Orleans Tuesday approved a $4 billion plea agreement for criminal fines and penalties against oil giant BP for the 2010 Gulf oil spill, the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history.

U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Vance imposed the terms that the Justice Department and BP had agreed to last November, which include the oil company pleading guilty to 14 criminal counts -- among them, felony manslaughter charges -- and the payment of a record $4 billion in criminal penalties over five years.

Vance's ruling came after hearing from eight witnesses Tuesday, including family members of those killed, cleanup workers, and members of the Southeast Asian Fisherfolks Association.

The plea agreement is with the oil company and not with indicted individual employees, so it doesn't result in anyone going to jail.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/29/us/louisiana-bp-deal/index.html

[Dustlawyer]

8. BP exerted influence (bribed or threatened or blackmailed) over every aspect of

The disaster and subsequent claims process. No Repug governor of a coastal state came to demand BP take care of their citizen victims. Ken Feinberg, the NY attorney appointed the "Independant head of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility" (hand picked by BP) was found to not be Independant and for all relevant times, was BP's representative by Judge Barbier. None of the decision makers at the top were ever charged, and now they are shoving a B.S. class settlement down our throats where you had to decide whether to opt in or out of the class before you knew what your offer, if anything would be. By opting in the class (you had only to do nothing if you wanted in, opt out had to be in writing, signed by the claimant, not the attorney for claimant, which automatically waived your right to trial against BP. The Court and class administrator then sent letters to represented claimants who opted out, w/o telling their attorneys, and explained they had extended the opt back in deadline and the claimant only had to check a box and mail it back in. All of this behind the claimant's attorneys back. They will not even tell the attorney which clients opted back into the class. BP is as dirty a corporation as a corporation can be. Fuck BP!