BP Oil Spill Criminal Investigation May Ensnare Executives In Cover-Up

[kpete]

Source: Huffington Post

BP Oil Spill Criminal Investigation May Ensnare Executives In Cover-Up

................

BP's internal flow-rate models -- and growing evidence that BP employees may have deliberately withheld from federal officials the damaging information found in them -- have emerged as a major focus of the Justice Department's two-year criminal investigation into the spill, according to legal experts and attorneys involved in litigation over the disaster.

Documents obtained by The Huffington Post also indicate that Kurt Mix, a senior BP engineer charged April 24 with obstruction of justice, shared information with more senior BP executives during the spill, including a senior vice president, Jonathan Sprague, who formerly managed BP's Gulf of Mexico operations.

Legal experts said criminal convictions for covering up the size of the spill could land senior BP personnel behind bars and swell the company's civil liability by billions of dollars.

Scott Dean, a BP spokesman, said the company was cooperating with the federal probe, but he declined to comment on the documents obtained by the HuffPost, or on the possibility that others at the firm may be indicted. Mix's attorney said in a statement the charges against her client are meritless. Michael Monico, a Chicago criminal defense lawyer representing Sprague, said his client would not comment on the charges against Mix. BP would not comment on Sprague's role as Mix's supervisor.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/bp-oil-spill-criminal-investigation_n_1472148.html

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[raouldukelives]

2. I wonder how much of a penalty one would face if

they walked to the ocean in full view of everyone and dumped a quart of motor oil into it.
I wonder if the consequences of that quart of oil might not outweigh the incarceration these criminals have been subjected to so far.
But then, nobody makes a good investment income off many of us. And if we don't serve corporate masters or help them in their selfish conquest of wealth. We'd be worth more to them in a prison these days since if we refuse to partake in the milk of the golden calf.

[freshwest]

4. Sadly true. We are just another commodity to them.

[Fuddnik]

3. I'm sure Greg Palast would provide copies of his files.

He's got file cabinets full of criminal activities and cover ups by BP.

There's a lot in "Vultures Picnic".

[freshwest]

5. Wish the headline read 'should' instead of 'may.'