Well, I had to skim through the majority of the posts in this thread as they were being made by imbeciles–but this just validates the behavior of Exxon after Valdez and suggests there is never a reason for large energy companies to do what BP did after Deepwater Horizon. BP, despite the endless criticism they have received and continue to receive behaved very admirably by immediately setting up a $20bn fund that they paid into for several quarters. That fund is now either gone or nearly gone, and unfortunately they willingly turned over the keys to the vault to a third party.
All this really says is that it’s much better to spend decades litigating, and making claimants painstakingly fight you in court for a generation (while many die of old age) versus actually stepping up and trying to create a big fat pile of money to “make people whole.”
Independent investigator, Louis Freeh, who was appointed by a federal judge to investigate these fraud claims has found evidence of corruption from the claims administration and is recommending that the Justice Department investigate.
Of note, however, Freeh found no wrongdoing by Patrick Juneau, the head of the claims administration. The wrong doing was by members of his staff. He does not recommend that the fund be closed or stop paying out claims.
[QUOTE=AP]
A former FBI director recommended Friday that the Justice Department investigate whether several lawyers plotted to corrupt the settlement program designed to compensate victims of BP’s 2010 Gulf oil spill.
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[QUOTE=AP]
However, Freeh concluded that then-top members of Juneau’s staff engaged in conduct that was improper, unethical and possibly criminal. He recommended that his report be forwarded to the Justice Department.
“The nature and seriousness of this type conduct varied in degree but was pervasive and, at its extreme, may have constituted criminal conduct,” the report said.
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[QUOTE=AP]
BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said the report “confirms what BP has suspected for some time: there has been fraud and unethical conduct within the facility itself and among various claimants and their lawyers —and immediate steps need to be taken to prevent it in the future.”
“The evidence of conflicts of interest and misconduct assembled in Judge Freeh’s report is shocking, but it simply underscores that neither BP nor the public has had any idea of what’s really going on within the (settlement program),” Morrell said. “Judge Freeh’s continued investigation is essential to assuring public confidence in the integrity of the claims process.”
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Better for who? If you’re a shit-sucking, evil motherfucker of an organization, sure. What’s happened to BP SHOULD be how its done because they screwed up royally and deserve everything they’re getting. What Exxon-Mobil did is cartoonish supervillainy. If that is your goal for your oil companies, I guess you consider that a success
I think Martin Hyde sort of has a point. While BP was negligent and deserves to be held responsible, we’re kind of lucky that they responded the way they did. They went above and beyond on the response, and there really wasn’t any value to them in doing so.
Now one big difference is that BP employees (including management) work and live in the Gulf Coast, while it was quite a different story with Prince William Sound. I think BP would have faced severe repercussions internally if they didn’t make it right for their employee’s communities.
I appreciate what they did and they didn’t go completely evil on the people who suffered, but that doesn’t mean we should fall for their good intentions and let them squirm out of doing what they should do in the first place. What BP did should be a model of how they all response, not an outlier
No actually it doesn’t. I’m pretty damn glad that they spent massive dollars for clean up and remediation. I’m pretty glad that it’s their money and not insurance companies as that would have drastically increased the cost of insurance. I’m pretty glad it’s their money and not the states’ or the Federal government’s money. I’m pretty glad that they had really big pockets and were able to cover it. This company was also drilling in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico at the same time. What would have happened then?
Do people really not think that there are some unscrupulous lawyers and businessmen in Louisiana that would try to commit fraud when someone else is handing out big dollars?
Here’s a quote from a book called The Log of a Cowboy by Andy Adams published in 1903.
That quote 100% accurately describes people from Louisiana.
Poor Halliburton! A second’s income, shot to Hell!