BP fined, charged: ‘Profit over prudence’

Laying the blame for the deaths of 11 rig workers in the Deepwater Horizon explosion and Gulf of Mexico oil spill on BP, federal prosecutors announced Thursday that two BP supervisors have been charged with manslaughter and the company will pay a $4 billion criminal fine, the largest in U.S. history.

“Those deaths were in fact unnecessary,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in New Orleans, adding that the federal investigation continued into the 2010 Deepwater disaster and the nation’s biggest offshore oil spill. “Our work is far from over.”

The charges, contained in a criminal settlement with BP and an indictment handed down by a federal grand jury, paint a picture of a corporation that placed “profit over prudence,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.

Not only did the BP supervisors on board the rig the night of the explosion fail to take steps necessary to prevent the blowout when they realized they were losing control of the deep sea well, company executive David Rainey later lied to Congress about the size and severity of the spill, prosecutors said.

“As part of its plea agreement, BP has admitted that, through Rainey, it withheld documents and provided false and misleading information in response to the U.S. House of Representatives’ request for flow-rate information,” the Department of Justice said in a news release.

The explosion on the night of April 20, 2010, unleashed a gush of oil from broken equipment on the seabed that continued for 87 days off the Louisiana coast. More than 200 million gallons of oil were spilled, shutting down commercial fisheries, destroying the summer beach season along part of the coast and fouling coastal wetlands.

Still to be settled are federal civil claims for the spill’s environmental damage that could cost BP billions of dollars more. Justice officials said negotiations with the company had so far failed to produce an agreement that could avert a civil trial scheduled for February.

Also, a federal judge in New Orleans has not yet approved an estimated $7.8 billion settlement with more than 120,000 plaintiffs in a civil suit by fishermen, beachside property owners and business owners, among others.

As part of BP’s settlement of criminal charges, prosecutors said BP had agreed to plead guilty to felony manslaughter, environmental crimes and obstruction of Congress, and would pay the record $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties.

About $2.4 billion of that will go to environmental restoration in the gulf. The company will pay an additional $525 million civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission for misrepresenting the size of the spill in SEC filings.

Robert M. Kaluza, 62, of Henderson, Nev., and Donald J. Vidrine, 65, of Lafayette, La. – the highest-ranking BP supervisors on board that night – were charged with 11 felony counts of seaman’s manslaughter, 11 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and one violation of the Clean Water Act in a federal indictment unsealed Thursday. Rainey, 58, of Houston, a former BP executive who helped oversee the spill response, was charged with obstruction of Congress and making false statements to law enforcement officials.

In a statement, Bob Dudley, BP’s group chief executive, said the company deeply regretted the loss of life. “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.”