BP To Pay Largest Criminal Fine In U.S. History For Deepwater Horizon Disaster

BP To Pay Largest Criminal Fine In U.S. History For Deepwater Horizon Disaster After two years, the litigation is not yet over since BP faces damages from Gulf states and additional civil charges from the Justice Department. November 15, 2012 | US Coast Guard picture shows fire boats battling the blazing remnants of the BP-operated off shore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Photo Credit: APF BP has agreed to pay a historic $4.5 billion criminal fine over a six-year period, after pleading guilty to 11 felony counts and criminal charges for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers. After two years, the litigation is not yet over since BP faces damages from Gulf states and additional civil charges from the Justice Department. Much of the fine, $2.4 billion, will go to Gulf of Mexico restoration, where 5 billion barrels of oil spilled over 87 days. Even now, an estimated 1 million barrels of oil remain in the waters, with excess oil washing up on Louisiana beaches as recently as September. Oil-soaked pelicans and other wildlife continue to wash up on shores. The disaster’s other legacies have produced eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions . BP has earned tens of billions in profit since the 2010 disaster. In the last quarter alone, BP earned $5.4 billion net profit , bringing its total for the year to $9.7 billion. The company retains $15 billion in cash reserves, and has also spent $15 million lobbying Congress since 2011. Rebecca Leber is a research assistant for the ThinkProgress war room. She graduated from the University of Rochester and holds a B.A. in political science and English with a minor in economics. =============== Neo ConnedCollapse A mere slap on the wrist. $4.5 billion in fines across six years. THIS is itself a crime. BP shows a profit of $7.6 billion JUST FOR Q4 2011, with a total profit for the entire year of $25.7 billion ( http://www.bp.com/extendedgene... ). 2012 Q3 profit is itself $4.7 billion ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/busi... ) Meanwhile, the damage from Deepwater Horizon is estimated to be as high as $100 billion ( http://www.rff.org/Documents/R... ) with at least half of that damage done to the fishing industry ( http://www.rff.org/Documents/R... p33 ). And Obama has done nothing but protect BP from justice - just like Wall Street hired him to do. Like Reply 2 days ago 4 Likes F . ccrider27 Sorry, this article is bogus and the settlement is bogus. But this is a great example of how groups like MoveOn, Think Progress, the Center for American Progress, Bold Progressives, PDA, Campaign for America's Future, OurFuture, MSNBC, etc etc etc plan to march in lock step with Obama and attempt to shield him from any criticism, in return for 'special access' at the White House. "a historic $4.5 Billion fine' - over 6 fricking years and settle all criminal charges to boot. PATHETIC! The fact that this settlement was "reached" just one week AFTER the election speaks for itself. Obama is setting the tone for his lame-duck administration. It's going to be all about the 1%. And obots have been saying for the last year to just give him another chance and he'll change. They sound like - and are - abuse victims. Obots, you are going to have to answer daily for sxxt like this for the next 4 years. If Romney had been elected and immediately reached a settlement exactly like this you would have been apoplectic. But instead you will undoubtedly come up with hundreds of excuses for this kind of behavior, if not abject praise. 6 months ago, BP was supposedly negotiating with the Obama DOJ to get by with a $15 Billion fine. At that time Antonia Juhasz (The Bush Agenda, Mission Iraqi Oil, etc) calculated that they should be paying in the neighborhood of $192 Billion: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... And again we hear from the author that only 5 billion barrels of oil were spilled. This is a number that the MSM repeatedly quotes without any verification whatsoever. It is the number that BP and Obama's EPA computed together using satellite imagery which could only see the oil plumes on the ocean's surface. The only independent study of this question was done by Purdue Univ. and yielded a spew rate of 95,000 barrels per day for 87 days = 8.2 million barrels or 343 million gallons or 32 X Exxon: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/201... In 2011, BP's own web site shows revenues of $375 Billion, profits of $25 Billion and paid taxes of negative $1.9 Billion. http://www.bp.com/extendedsect... This and all other Obama crimes are on the hands of the obots who put him back in power for the next 4 years. Hang tight! It's going to be a very rough ride! ============== Analysis: Charges against BP employees test reach of U.S. statute Fri, Nov 23 15:16 PM EST By Andrew Longstreth NEW YORK (Reuters) - Not all manslaughter charges are created equal. If they were, the U.S. Justice Department might have filed just 11 charges when it brought a criminal case against two BP Plc employees last week, one for each of the 11 deaths in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Instead, the government charged Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, the two highest-ranking BP supervisors on board the rig in the hours before the 2010 disaster, with 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter and 11 counts of what's known as seaman's manslaughter. The seaman's manslaughter statute was first passed by Congress in 1838 after a string of deadly steamboat accidents. The law, which has been modified multiple times since then, was intended to hold captains, engineers and pilots responsible for deaths attributable to their conduct. The idea behind the law was that those operating a ship have a special responsibility toward passengers in their care. As The Wall Street Journal and others have noted, prosecutors face a lower bar in proving seaman's manslaughter than they do in ordinary manslaughter cases. Manslaughter charges generally require a finding of gross negligence; seaman's manslaughter does not. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit affirmed that distinction in a 2005 case, U.S. v. O'Keefe, which could be key precedent in the BP case. The O'Keefe case resulted in the seaman's manslaughter conviction of a tugboat captain whose wife drowned in the Mississippi River after the vessel capsized. At trial, the government introduced testimony indicating that the captain had ingested cocaine on the day of the accident. Prior to deliberations, the captain's lawyer asked that the jury be instructed that the government must show the accident was a result of "gross negligence," defined as "wanton or reckless disregard for human life." U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan in New Orleans disagreed, ruling that the statute requires only a finding of negligence, which she defined as an "omission to perform some duty" or a "violation of some rule or standard of care, which is made to govern and control one in the discharge of some duty." The 5th Circuit upheld her ruling and the captain's conviction. But the 5th Circuit decision left unanswered the question of whether the government can assert seaman's manslaughter against Kaluza and Vidrine at all. The two are accused of failing to alert engineers onshore that BP's Macondo well was unstable and of accepting "illogical" explanations from members of the rig crew for the warning signs. In the indictment, prosecutors allege the two men violated the seaman's manslaughter statute by engaging in "negligence" and "inattention" to their duties. Here's what the seaman's manslaughter statute says: "Every captain, engineer, pilot or other person employed on any steamboat or vessel, by whose misconduct, negligence or inattention to his duties on such vessel the life of any person is destroyed ... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both." Vidrine and Kaluza were not captains or engineers of the Deepwater Horizon. The two have been described by investigators, including those who wrote the "Chief Counsel's Report" on the Deepwater disaster, as "well site leaders." According to the report, well site leaders served as BP's "eyes and ears, and made important decisions regarding the course of drilling operations." As the litigation against Vidrine and Kaluza progresses, a judge may have to decide whether "well site leaders" should fall within the "other person" category covered by the seaman's manslaughter statute. A search of the database of legal research service Westlaw shows the statute has rarely been used in the last decade, and when it has, it has mostly been against defendants who were responsible for navigating a vessel. In the case of the convicted tugboat captain, neither the trial judge nor the 5th Circuit addressed who is covered under the statute, but Judge Berrigan emphasized the statute's purpose of holding responsible those in charge of navigation. "In light of the unique dangers of maritime travel, the vulnerability of passengers on board such vessels and the voluntary nature of employment or ownership, it is reasonable to impose on such crews a heightened degree of care with the parallel lower threshold for criminal liability," she wrote. It may be a long shot for Vidrine and Kaluza to argue that the seaman's manslaughter statute does not apply to them, but it's probably one worth taking. Vidrine counsel Robert Habans of Habans & Carriere and Kaluza lawyer Shaun Clarke of Gerger & Clarke both declined to comment. They have previously said their clients are innocent and have been unfairly targeted by the government. (Reporting by Andrew Longstreth; Editing by Ted Botha and John Wallace)