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Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Blankenship gets maximum sentence: One year in prison, $250,000 fine
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff Writer
F. BRIAN FERGUSON | Gazette-MailFormer Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship makes his way into the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse for his sentencing on Wednesday morning.
A judge today ordered Don Blankenship, the former Massey Energy CEO, to serve one year in prison and pay a $250,000 fine, the maximum penalty allowed for his conviction for conspiring to violate federal mine safety and health standards at the Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 miners died in a massive underground explosion.
U.S. District Judge Irene Berger also sentenced Blankenship to serve one year on supervised release, or probation, during a hearing held six years and one day after the Upper Big Branch explosion prompted an aggressive federal investigation of the mine disaster and Massey’s business and safety practices under Blankenship’s hands-on leadership.
....
Berger earlier this week threw out a request from Alpha Natural Resources and federal prosecutors that Blankenship be forced to pay Alpha nearly $28 million in restitution to cover Alpha’s costs in cooperating with the federal probe and paying fines related to the Upper Big Branch Mine’s violations. Alpha bought Massey in June 2011, a little more than a year after the mine disaster. Blankenship had retired in December 2010, taking with him a $12 million golden parachute.
Blankenship, who turned 66 last month, was not charged with causing the Raleigh County mine disaster, but the allegations against him and the crime he was convicted of focused on repeated violations of basic safety standards — mine ventilation, roof support and dust control — known for decades to be effective in preventing mine explosions.
....
Staff writers David Gutman and Kate White contributed to this report. Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.
Blankenship gets maximum sentence: One year in prison, $250,000 fine
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff Writer
F. BRIAN FERGUSON | Gazette-MailFormer Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship makes his way into the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse for his sentencing on Wednesday morning.
A judge today ordered Don Blankenship, the former Massey Energy CEO, to serve one year in prison and pay a $250,000 fine, the maximum penalty allowed for his conviction for conspiring to violate federal mine safety and health standards at the Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 miners died in a massive underground explosion.
U.S. District Judge Irene Berger also sentenced Blankenship to serve one year on supervised release, or probation, during a hearing held six years and one day after the Upper Big Branch explosion prompted an aggressive federal investigation of the mine disaster and Massey’s business and safety practices under Blankenship’s hands-on leadership.
....
Berger earlier this week threw out a request from Alpha Natural Resources and federal prosecutors that Blankenship be forced to pay Alpha nearly $28 million in restitution to cover Alpha’s costs in cooperating with the federal probe and paying fines related to the Upper Big Branch Mine’s violations. Alpha bought Massey in June 2011, a little more than a year after the mine disaster. Blankenship had retired in December 2010, taking with him a $12 million golden parachute.
Blankenship, who turned 66 last month, was not charged with causing the Raleigh County mine disaster, but the allegations against him and the crime he was convicted of focused on repeated violations of basic safety standards — mine ventilation, roof support and dust control — known for decades to be effective in preventing mine explosions.
....
Staff writers David Gutman and Kate White contributed to this report. Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.
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