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Subscribe to RSSBP agreed to pay the largest criminal fine ever brought against a single corporation; the U.S. government in turn agrees not to press more charges against the oil company responsible for the 2006 oil spill. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
Updated at 2:45 p.m. ET: BP will pay approximately $4.5 billion and plead guilty to manslaughter and other criminal charges as part of a settlement with the U.S. government over the deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the London-based oil giant and federal officials said Thursday.
The settlement total, to be paid out over five years, includes more than $1.25 billion in criminal fines -- the largest such penalty ever.
In addition, two BP employees have been indicted on manslaughter charges and a BP executive has been indicted on charges he lied to authorities about his work estimating the Gulf spill rate.
At an afternoon news conference in New Orleans, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the wide-ranging settlement "the latest step forward in our ongoing efforts to achieve justice for those whose lives and whose livelihoods were impacted by the largest environmental disaster in the history of the United States."
He said the settlement amounts mark "both the largest single criminal fine … and the largest total criminal resolution" in U.S. history.
BP has agreed to plead guilty to 11 counts of felony manslaughter, one count of felony obstruction of Congress and violations of the Clean Water and Migratory Bird Treaty Acts, Holder said.
The agreement, subject to court approval, resolves all federal criminal charges and all claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the company stemming from the explosion and leak, the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.
“All of us at BP deeply regret the tragic loss of life caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident as well as the impact of the spill on the Gulf coast region,” Bob Dudley, BP’s group chief executive, said in a statement announcing the settlement.
Lee Celano / Reuters, file
A hard hat from an oil worker lies in oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana in this June 8, 2010 photo.
“From the outset, we stepped up by responding to the spill, paying legitimate claims and funding restoration efforts in the Gulf. We apologize for our role in the accident, and as today’s resolution with the U.S. government further reflects, we have accepted responsibility for our actions.”
“We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders,” added Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP’s chairman. “It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims.”
In addition, a federal indictment unsealed Thursday charges David Rainey, who was BP's vice president of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, with obstruction of Congress and making false statements. He is accused of lying to federal investigators when they asked him how he calculated a flow rate estimate for BP's blown-out well in the days after the disaster.
Two BP well site leaders, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, were indicted on manslaughter and involuntary charges, accused of disregarding abnormal high-pressure readings that should have glaring indications of trouble just before the deadly blowout.
Rainey's lawyer said his client did "absolutely nothing wrong." And attorneys for the two rig workers accused the Justice Department of making scapegoats out of them.
"Bob was not an executive or high-level BP official. He was a dedicated rig worker who mourns his fallen co-workers every day," Kaluza attorneys Shaun Clarke and David Gerger said in a statement, The Associated Press reported. "No one should take any satisfaction in this indictment of an innocent man. This is not justice."
Before Thursday, the only person charged in the disaster was a former BP engineer who was arrested in April on obstruction of justice charges, according to AP. He was accused of deleting text messages about the company's response to the spill.
The Deepwater Horizon rig, 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, sank after the fiery explosion. The well on the sea floor spewed an estimated 206 million gallons of crude oil, soiling sensitive tidal estuaries and beaches, killing wildlife and shutting vast areas of the Gulf to commercial fishing.
On the docks in Louisiana, fishermen and oystermen say the effects of the BP oil spill remain today. NBC's Anne Thompson has more.
After several attempts failed, engineers finally managed to cap the gushing well on July 15, 2010, halting the flow of oil into the Gulf after more than 85 days.
The spill exposed lax government oversight and led to a temporary ban on deepwater drilling while officials and the oil industry studied the risks, worked to make it safer and developed better disaster plans.
Thirteen of the 14 criminal charges to which BP plans to plead guilty pertain to the accident itself and stem from the negligent misinterpretation of a negative pressure test conducted on board the Deepwater Horizon, BP said. The company said it acknowledged this misinterpretation more than two years ago when it released its internal investigation report.
The remaining criminal count of obstruction pertains to allegations that company officials lied to Congress about how much oil was pouring out of the ruptured well during the spill response.
As part of its resolution of criminal claims with the U.S. government, BP will pay $4 billion in installments over five years and has also agreed to five years’ probation.
The amount includes about $1.25 billion in criminal fines, nearly $2.4 billion to be paid to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and $350 million to be paid to the National Academy of Sciences.
BP said it will also pay the SEC $525 million over three years to settle all securities claims.
The $1.25 criminal penalty is the largest in U.S. history, eclipsing the nearly $1.2 billion paid by Pfizer Inc. for marketing fraud related to its Bextra pain medicine in 2009, according to Bloomberg and AP.
BP has also agreed to take more steps to boost safety of drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico, including third-party auditing and verification, training and well control equipment and processes such as blowout preventers and cementing.
Under U.S. law, companies convicted of certain criminal acts can be debarred from contracting with the federal government. BP says it has not been told of any intent by government agencies to suspend or debar the company in connection with the plea agreement.
Still pending is a separate civil court action in which the federal government contends BP was grossly negligent in causing the spill. “We’ve been in negotiations with BP. We have not reached a number that I consider satisfactory to resolve those claims that we have,” Holder said.
The criminal deal announced Thursday with the Justice Department is also separate from a March settlement in which BP agreed to pay $7.8 billion to more than 100,000 businesses and individuals who say they were harmed by the spill.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
PhotoBlog: Cat Island pelicans see habitat shrinking 2 years after Gulf spill
Archival video: The people of the Gulf Coast have survived hurricanes, but 128 days after the BP oil spill disaster, they're struggling to see a way forward. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
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It's about time these greedy liars from BP were charged and indicted. Congressional hearings are a joke, and gives execs the opportunity to lie and laugh at our beloved representatives, nothing but a big waste of taxpayer money. And pleading guilty to felonies and paying fines as a company is a slap on the wrist.
OK, BP is a greedy, anti-socialist corporation bent on destroying the proletariat.
What's your fuel bill this month?
Well, the next big thing that will make a huge mess in the USA is the Keystone Pipeline, which will break. This company has a lousy track record. The mess they made in the Kalamazoo River is still there all these years later and I don't see them rushing over there to make it right. So, we'll just get more of this with Keystone, it's just a matter of time.
We need to get serious about alternate energy. Like now.
The only sources we have are wind and solar. That is not enough to power this country. We cannot function as a producing economy with adequate energy resources. Besides this country is broke and highly unemployed.
How about a well defined Energy policy. The plutocrats always talk about it, but they never produce one.
three days profit, on oil we get out of the ground for free, "It's a deal!"
nevermind the twenty thousand years of dead fish, turtles and dolphins washing ashore, you dumb bastards clean them up on your own dime, woooo hooooo they got away easy.
no paychecks were harmed in any of the payments made to any republican lawmakers, it is the stern and solemn oath to keep the republicans well financed forever, all their children will attend the best colleges and be rewarded with well payng jobs. and will never serve a day in any of the united states armed forces, to potentially be killed in any armed conflict over oil, or it's products.
Your class warfare regurgitation of Obama is pathetic.
you should get a better grip on reality before you make such a fool of yourself larry-314720.
get youself a more individual name.
ooo my-
20,000 years, eh? Get oil out of the ground for free, eh? By making this a partisan issue Larry had every right to call you out and if he is making a fool of himself it is only by responding to ridiculous partisan babble with more partisan babble. You have added nothing but inanity to this board. But hey... way to go on resorting to making fun of his screen name... that'll show 'em!
Gas jumped 20 cents a gallon from yesterday on this news. So who do you think is paying for this settlement? Yeah that's right us people who purchase gas. Oh the media was in usual form blaming the increase on Israel and the Palestinians exchanging rocket attacks (wink, wink). Smart people know corporations never pay anything. There customers are the ones who pay.
You are right Larry we will pay 10 times more. Exxon after their spill which was very small compare to this one got more wealthier and BP will be too.
The sad thing is the goverment is getting this money and not the people on the Gulf Coast who many lost thier livelyhood due to this spill . But ,we are all sure the government will spend it wisely right ?
So if this is considered "criminal" why are they not getting butt raped and shut down like megaupload? I want to storm all that is fed and gov and shank them in the taint........no seriously I do. How much longer are we going to take it? DERP ER DER.
4.5 billion is chump change to BP, so basically the punishment is a mere slap on the hand. And they'll make it back three-fold by concocting some "reason" for a big gas hike . . . It will take generations for the damage they caused to heal and some of it will never be the same. BP should have been fined ten times that amount . . . and still that wouldn't be enough.
For those of you who want a chuckle on this topic check out the youtube BP spills coffee.
The corporate culture is where the criminality exists. It seems to me that accountability is stopping on a very low rung of the ladder. Let's apply the legal framework used by the supreme court in Citizens United and charge the corp itself with manslaughter. What a scmucked up deal! $5 billion will hardly scratch their P&L or the stock value!It is a very small step in the right direction. Accountability. That's one of the primary attributes I have stressed to my children and now my grandchild. Is it too much to hope for that it becomes the new mindset in DC? Someone needs to start teaching our "corporate leaders" the meaning. You know, they just made pot legal in my state. Maby, after all these years, I should try it.
It's about time BP was made to take some responsibility! Their engineers S U C K!
Oh well, maybe the democratic voters will now understand their party was made up of crooks also. BP would have skated no matter who was in power, R or D. But keep voting for them 99.5% and you will see even more.
A lot of propaganda was wriiten about the Tea Party but at least they wanted accountability and a government that was accountable to the citizens. I am a conservative, but I would rather lose to the Green Party than the Democratic Party. At least a change to 3rd parties would be a step forward.
2016 is the election where R and D need to learn what it is like to not be in charge. I want to see 33% Green Party, 33% Libertarian, 20% other parties and 14% R and/or D. Then you will really see what Hope and Change is all about.
Green, Libertarian, Justice, Socialist, Constitutionalist, Independents: start researching their websites and pick the one that best fits your views and start helping them out. Sign anyone's petition to run, then vote for the one that speaks for you.
That is not enough it should be at least $1 trillion.
Well Exxon is not out of business and neither BP will go out of business. The fine for Exxon and BP will be paid by public at gas pump. Gov fines the corporation, corp pays happily and turn around get it back from consumers. Gov and Corp knows that. This is the system people can not do anything. Gas is necessity not luxury so wide range of public transportation and new rail are good solutions.
As the Supremes have ruled that corporations are "people", who from BP is going to serve the jail time that any other person would be serving if they had pleaded guilty to manslaughter? Sure, sure, sure, they are paying a substantial fine. But they received favorable payment terms that will allow them to hike up their prices to gain the cash to make the payments rather than being forced to make them out of current profits. Seems like the shareholders (aka the Company) should be the ones required to make the payments rather than their customers.
Limited liability has always protected corporations but the ruling that corporations were persons was the nail in the coffin against any social justice or responsibility of the decision makers in the companies. Real corrupt stuff.
It is too bad that the accounting of this money will not be made public and how or where the money goes.
I have been wondering just where these huge fines go?? Who/what gets them?? Certainly doesn't seem as if it's going to those were harmed by the big oil disaster.. The marsh lands are loaded with oil and who knows what will happen years from know...
lmfao thats petty cash to them they make that in a quarter of a year