E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
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.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Before the storm, Petraeus, Broadwell met in public
- Obama to tour New York's island of 'heartbreak'
- BP to pay $4.5 billion, plead guilty to criminal charges in Gulf oil spill
- Longtime sheriff's deputy in Los Angeles arrested over murder, attempted murder
- Obama: GOP criticism of UN ambassador over Benghazi attack is 'outrageous'
- Video: McCain on Benghazi: ‘Cover-up or incompetence’
Leave a Comment:
Well........what did you expect??!!
Neither Big Oil or their politicians were going to do the right thing, shouldn't be a shock to anyone.
May they all rot in hell.........
If we let these sleezy BP people out of this cheap , then we don't deserve any better than what we get, I just hate the thought of the rich getting away with this stuff , but if you or I make a mistake on our 1040's we pay a huge fine. Not right , but we are in the land of the rich get richer and the poorer support the goverment.
This is all bull @!$%#. SETTLED right on brother.
need about 3 times the amount 100 billion more then MAYBE they will get close. im stupid, where is the settlement money going to go.I have not seen any yet not a dime.
And what exactly makes YOU entitled to anything?
I hope and pray with all my heart that this oil giant, BP ends up paying through its nose, in the billions of dollars for all the death and destruction they caused by lying and trying to save a few bucks.
This environment destroying, species killing and murdering oil giant cares about nothing or anybody except making the almighty buck.
This is not the first time they have caused this much death and destruction, they have done it dozens of times before, and just about gotten away with not paying sufficient damages for lost livelihoods.
This piece of crap oil giant doesn't care about you or any wildlife they murder and the habitats they destroy.
I hope their company goes broke from all of the large (hopefully) expenses they will have to pay out.
Well I guess now that gas is getting close to $3 a gallon the Obama Administration has to get it jacked back up to over $4. Cannot have the poor folks buying cheap gas. Heck employers might start hiring again and create a bunch of gas consumers. I don't give a damn what the government gets for damages from BP as I won't see one penny of it. I know I will be the one paying for the damn thing. I guess we are stuck in the same old rotten economy by the same old rotten administration because a bunch of imbeciles do not know what they are voting for.
I quess most people on here support Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, a top Republican view on BP
Lawmakers shouldn't be concerned. That is how fascistists like Obama prefer to run things. He also has a hint of communism and totalitarianism thrown in for good measure and then I think he prefers to round it out with a dash of socialism.
SEIGGG-FREEEEDO, >>> YUR NUTZZZ BOY!!!
Just FYI, people, there has been an update. BP will be fined between $3 - $5 billion, and as many as four staff members will be arrested. Two of those employees face manslaughter charges.
Now that's more like it!
This whole BP thing is stupid as hell and lining pockets of Washington people, lawyers, criminals, and, well, its just stupid. Once the Fed took over instead of a specific court or something, its been all nonsense. Here on the MS gulf coast the joke has been for years now that you win the lotto if you can find a tar ball on the road and stick it in your pants pocket. They just listed almost a thousand people in the paper who recieved from the minimum $30k up to $500k in compensation, and none had even ever lived around the gulf coast. They just drove down and filled out the papers. The worse part is, now that they have been caught, the government has decided it is not worth their time to go after them to get the hundreds of millions back and put them in jail.... in other words, they just get to keep the free money.
No doubt, it needed to be cleaned up, and those affected compensated appropriately, but like Obamacare, Welfare, Food stamps, education, FEMA.... or anything else the Fed takes control of..... It all just became a gigantic kick back scheme for the people controlling the money. Joke.
Dear Gofigureit. The idea that this is somehow an Obama, liberal thing is just plain ignorant. Most of the laws protecting people like you were gutted by Conservatives. You are so biased that you cannot see the truth. The Democrats are the only reason we have any laws; the Republicans have blocked every effort to hold the people in corporations accountable. If you're going to vent, at least get the facts straight.
Actually John of Colorado... start filtering the iron out of your water. I never mentioned Obama, I never mentioned conservatives or Liberals. I never mentioned anything but the absolute truth. It was your narrow minded simple focus on finding something political that led you onto a strange rant as people like you often run into. You are a simple nut, and maybe YOU need to step back and look at facts.
....only democrats make laws...... oh brother.
Actually Gofigureit....perhaps YOU should start filtering the iron out of your water. Like all the vomit you've previously posted on here, this post is nothing but conjecture that you've yanked out of your ass. It's about as far from the "absolute truth" as your brain is from reality.
No cannoli boy. I live here. I read, I watch, I have people I know who are employed by the government to take care of the BP cleanup, I know tons of people who work offshore.... People like you who resort to language such as that without any factual information of your own... you are the perpetrators of falshoods and misleading or hidden information. You are ignorant.
to those who doubt culpability on BP's part,you haven't researched your facts.engineering had determined that the rig was unstable and the warnings were ignored.it was a matter of doing it safely vs. getting it done with a chance of danger and damage.BP chose the cost effective short cut and the corp is directly responsible.criminal charges need to be brought,fines should be hugh and lessons will be taught.nice thought but it only happens in LaLa Land not moneyland.
Now maybe our government will go after the even bigger criminals, the Wall Street banksters.
If "corporations are people" then I want the people at BP to pay the fine out of their own pockets. This is exactly what's wrong in the U.S.A., but still no one's paying attention. The majority of our laws are set to protect capitalism, at any expense. Even with the EPA, etc...the people get off while the "corporation" pays the penalties. How can a "corporation" pay. They do that by paying fines through profits. Until this ends, we will continue to get the same results. It's time that the "people" that make up "corporations" start being jailed and fined. Then, this ridiculous behavior will end.
BP was wrong... but read what happened after the explosion also. The Feds need to charge themselves also I think. After the explosion, most wanted the rig to burn itself out to keep down the spill until a back pressure cap could be put in place. They also wanted to start new measures to stop the oil from spreading and were denied by the Fed who had their own response plans. There were a ton of things done wrong because help and problem resolution efforts were over run by Washington beaurocrats with their own agendas holding things up. Much the same as Katrina, Sandy, Floods, Libya..... BP goofed, our government leaders perpetuated the mess with their self protectionism.
"An inspector general says the White House edited a report about the administration's
moratorium on offshore drilling to make it appear experts supported a
six-month ban"...as reported by EVEN MSN.COM and NBC News...so where is the penalty for Obama's White House lying...again???
This reminds me of going to the hospital for treatment! The bills just keep coming, and always from another place in the hospital. When will this "you owe more money" ever end?
\
So, what politician or politicians got paid off by BP? Greed and corruption are at work in D.C.
HELLO EVERY WRITER IN THIS BLOG!!! You seem to FORGET to EASILY that "CONGRESS is HOLDING the CONTRACTS NOT THE PRESIDENT". This has everything to do with the OIL Industry and the ONES in CONTROL of the HOUSE of REP. They are 100% for the OIL INDUSTRY, THE ONES THAT SAVED THEIR RE-ELECTION into the HOUSE of REP. GREED and POWER folks. They are the ones writing this off, since they hold the PURSE and CHECKBOOK !!!!!!!
Considering their amount of quarterly net profits, the total amount they're paying out for all settlements is NOTHING.
The punishment should be just like what PSU got... what would be their annual net profits? GONE for the next 4 years and they're unable to do any more drilling beyond what they current tap with # of barrels produce reduced to a quarter of the amount pumped the year of the "accident".
This HOUSE of PUKES have got to GO in the next 2year election. They are not doing AMERICA as a NATION any SAVE the CITIZENS CAMPAIGN. ALL GREED and guess who the GOP & TEA are the MAJORITY !!!!
Woohoo! Now BP can put out a new advertisement before year's end, claiming they invested 22 billion, and this additional 4 billion into America....all of it fines! Adoring Republicans everywhere salute you for your investment.
The rest of us are still counting dead fish and dead pools and floating carcasses and loss of habitat.......
and after all the appeals it wil be 50cents....our gas prices are sure to rise also...
The cost of gas will only increase if the world supply is diminished or threatened by a war in Iran, just the way the Republican party endorses, for the sake of Oil Company profits.......
The price of oil is actually cheap by the barrel, since it costs about 6 to 80 bucks to pump out of the wells, while yeilding 55 gallons of gas, 10 gallons of jet fuel, gallons of lubricants, and more.
The price increases when the commodities traders believe there will be a future shortage, due to war, or natural events, or Koch Brother refinery shut-downs, leading to an interruption in supply.
Those are the things that make prices go up. The fines are chump-change to the international Oil Producers...
$4.5 Billion, it's like $10 to the average person, fine them $400 Billion, that will get everyones attention, No more spilling oil in the ocean...