W.Va. mine boss charged with fraud

[dipsydoodle]

Associated Press :

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- The superintendent of the West Virginia coal mine where an explosion killed 29 men was charged Wednesday with conspiracy to defraud the federal government, becoming the highest-ranking Massey Energy employee to face criminal prosecution so far over the deadly blast.

Former Upper Big Branch mine boss Gary May, 43, of Bloomingrose, W.Va., is named in a federal information, a document that signals a defendant is cooperating with prosecutors. He is the second Massey employee to face prosecution in the case.

Reached at his home Wednesday morning, May declined comment.

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said his investigation of the worst U.S. mine disaster in four decades is "absolutely not" finished but did not immediately comment further.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MINE_EXPLOSION?SITE=OHALL2&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[cmd]

1. Reach a little higher, then a little higher.

I hope this is just the beginning. Massey Energy needs to worry.

[Scuba]

3. +1

[AnOhioan]

6. Massey Energy is no more, they were were bought out by Alpha Natural Resources

That being said, former Massey Energy execs are not out the woods.

"In December 2011, Alpha agreed to pay $209 million in restitution and civil and criminal penalties for Massey’s role in the 2010 mining disaster. Officials say it was the largest settlement ever made in a government investigation of a mine disaster. The amount includes $46.5 million allocated to the families of the victims and those who were injured in the blast, and includes terms that protect Alpha — but not individual Massey executives — from prosecution."

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/massey-energy-company/index.html

[izquierdista]

2. Sing, sing a song....

Sing out loud
Sing out strong

[waddirum]

20. those lyrics and zappa's face made my day

and a high five for your user name too!

[Botany]

4. They need to get Don Blankenship

Last edited Sat Feb 25, 2012, 09:41 AM - Edit history (1)

He could spend over a million $s for an anti environment and anti mine safety
(aka government inspections) rally but let his mine fill up w/ coal dust and
methene which exploded and killed many people.

[yellowcanine]

7. It will be a travesty if he is not prosecuted. He had to know of the violations.

Basically he ordered the violations, from what I can see.

[Botany]

8. The man was a little petty dictator running his coal kingdom in W.V. and KY.

some of the very same miners who went to his anti environmental anti govt.
regulations party died less than a year later in his unsafe mine.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. I'd love nothing more than to see him in court wearing his Star Spangled 3 piece suit. nt

[waddirum]

21. that looks like stars and stripes hell

I'd get a seizure from the visual overstimulation.

[cmd]

14. Yep!

I have nothing but contempt for that man. I grew up in a family of miners. He is scum.

[Historic NY]

5. Meanwhile the Mine Safety Bill languishes in congress.

But supporters acknowledged that the legislation faces an uphill battle to passage, citing Republican opposition.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the lead sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said he was pessimistic about being about to approve the legislation, adding that he can "hardly get a Republican vote at all.”

House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) praised the federal report on the Upper Big Branch disaster in a statement Tuesday, but did not say whether he would support mine safety legislation.

“Massey Energy’s failure to make safety a top priority forced miners to face greater danger in an inherently hazardous profession, and the people of West Virginia paid the price,” Kline said, noting that he would hold a hearing on the report.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/197571-mine-safety-bill-stalled-despite-scathing-federal-report

[Matariki]

9. This guy

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-dark-lord-of-coal-country-20101129

[alp227]

11. that's an article about Don Blankenship, not charged here,

the defendant in this case is Gary May. Otherwise, excellent article.

[Matariki]

13. Yes, I know. I would like to see this reach to Blankenship

because he's a right bastard.

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. more like "Fat Bastard"

[Matariki]

17. His weight has nothing to do with his bastardly qualities

[lonestarnot]

22. Just a typo. She meant to say "Rat Bastard."

[alp227]

10. The Republican candidates would nominate Attys. Gen. who'd drop this case

or the candidates would pardon May (oops I assumed Blankenship) if the justice dept under Obama convicts Blankenship before 1/20/2013. Oh yeah, Santorum was recently boasting about his grandfather being a coal miner (but Rick himself probably never stepped into a mine ever.) so that's why we gotta get out and VOTE in november!

[Dont call me Shirley]

15. Why is massey himself, DB, not being indicted for murder and fraud?!

[midnight]

18. “They’re moving up in the food chain,” said Tony Oppegard, a Kentucky lawyer who defends miners. “

Mr. May is the third mine supervisor to be charged in the disaster, the worst mining accident in the United States in 40 years. Last year charges were brought against two others — the mine’s security chief and a foreman who had not been at the mine on the day of the explosion.

But Mr. May, one of the mine’s two superintendents, is the most senior, and industry observers say the charges against him are an indication that prosecutors are getting closer to the executives who ran the company, Massey Energy, which has since been bought by Alpha Natural Resources.


“They’re moving up in the food chain,” said Tony Oppegard, a Kentucky lawyer who defends miners. “This will cause some sleepless nights for people high up in the corporate ladder.”


The way the charges were filed — directly to the court by prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office, instead of by a grand jury indictment — indicates that Mr. May is cooperating with prosecutors, a strategy that observers say could eventually lead prosecutors to top executives, including Don L. Blankenship, the former head of Massey, who state investigations concluded had enforced a culture of cutting corners and ignoring risks for the sake of profit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/us/3rd-worker-indicted-in-wake-of-2010-mine-disaster.html?_r=2&hp

[Omaha Steve]

23. Sorry I missed this

Thanks for posting.

OS

[Doctor_J]

24. Blankenship should be up for murder

we are desperately in need of some deterrents for Republican criminals.