From the lawyers.
"Judge refuses to suspend BP settlement payments" by Michael Kunzelman | Associated Press, July 20, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge refused Friday to temporarily shut down a multibillion-dollar settlement program for compensating victims of BP’s 2010 Gulf oil spill, saying he has seen no evidence of widespread fraud among the tens of thousands of claims.
Related: Woman charged with stealing $480,000 from One Fund
The judge also said he was offended by what he saw as attempts to smear the lawyer administering the claims.
BP PLC argued that all payments to Gulf Coast residents and businesses should be suspended while former FBI director Louis Freeh investigates alleged misconduct by a lawyer who worked for claims administrator Patrick Juneau on the settlement program.
Related:
"Former FBI director Louis Freeh was appointed Tuesday to investigate alleged misconduct by a lawyer who helped run BP’s multibillion-dollar settlement fund."
Like we would ever believe anything an FBI anybody said anymore. Didn't he just come under criticism for a shoddy report on Sandusky?
US District Judge Carl Barbier said he was troubled by the allegations but didn’t see any reason to take the ‘‘drastic step’’ of shutting down the program without evidence of widespread fraud.
Lionel H. Sutton III, a target of Freeh’s probe, allegedly received a portion of settlement proceeds for claims he referred to a law firm before joining Juneau’s staff.
Sutton, who resigned on June 21, has denied the allegations. Sutton’s wife, Christine Reitano, who also worked as a lawyer for the settlement program, had her contract terminated June 26.
Barbier lashed out at critics who have questioned Juneau’s objectivity and have tried to portray the Lafayette-based lawyer as beholden to plaintiffs’ attorneys.
‘‘I find the recent attacks on Mr. Juneau’s character are highly offensive, inappropriate,’’ Barbier said.
Barbier said he found it ‘‘especially offensive’’ that BP chief executive Robert Dudley claimed during an interview televised by CNBC on Thursday that the settlement process has been ‘‘hijacked.’’
That reminds me; what happened to all those 9/11 fund Red Cross dollars that disappeared as quick as the towers into dust?
‘‘Personal attacks, hyperbole, and use of such language in my opinion crosses the line,’’ he said.
BP says there is a risk that hundreds of millions of dollars in claims payments could be tainted by fraud.
Which isn't the same as a tainted Gulf.
‘‘We didn’t sign up for a deal in which this type of corruption would enter the program,’’ BP attorney Jeff Clark told Barbier.
Well, none of us did, but that's the main underpinning of the political and economic systems, so whatcha gonna do?
Plaintiffs’ attorneys say the company hasn’t provided any evidence that Juneau has improperly paid any claims.
BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said the company disagreed with Barbier’s ruling and would review its legal options.
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Related:
"As appeal opens, BP calls some claims ‘fictitious’" by Kevin McGill | Associated Press, July 09, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — BP PLC is being forced to pay inflated and even ‘‘fictitious’’ claims to businesses because of the way a court-appointed administrator is making payments from a legal settlement following the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a lawyer for the oil giant said Monday.
Ted Olson made the arguments in a packed courtroom before a three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals. A lower court already refused to block payments to businesses that say the spill cost them money.
At stake are billions of dollars in settlement payments stemming from the blowout of BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. It was unclear when the appeals panel would rule....
Olson, who served as solicitor general under President George W. Bush, attacked the payout process....
It was his wife that allegedly made the only call from Flight 77 before it allegedly crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.
BP has asserted that the judge who approved the deal and a court-appointed claims administrator have misinterpreted the settlement, allowing thousands of businesses to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for inflated and fictitious losses....
Feinberg of One Fund allowed that?
Btw, a FRIKKIN' WAY OF LIFE and ECOSYSTEM has BEEN DESTROYED (but not energy extraction) in the Gulf! How do you compen$ate for that?
The April 2010 blowout of BP’s well off the Louisiana coast triggered an explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and led to millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf. Shortly after the disaster, BP agreed to create a $20 billion compensation fund that was administered at first by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, led by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg.
After the settlement was announced last year, US District Judge Carl Barbier appointed lawyer Patrick Juneau to take over the process of evaluating and paying claims.
The settlement does not have a cap, but BP initially estimated that it would pay $7.8 billion to resolve claims by tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents and businesses. Now the company says it no longer can give a reliable estimate for how much the deal will cost.
Awards to businesses are based on a comparison of their revenues and expenses before and after the spill. BP says a ‘‘policy decision’’ that Juneau announced in January 2013 allows businesses to manipulate figures in a way that leads to errors in calculating lost profits.
If that ain't the oily kettle hollering pot!
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Also see:
BP takes fight to claimants
Yeah, poor BP is under attack!
BP launches ads in settlement fight
Why is it corporations think everything is $imply a matter of good public relations?
Nothing about the lack of organic life throughout the water column or 6-inch layer of corexit-created tar at the bottom, Globe?
"BP says cleanup complete in 3 states" Associated Press, June 11, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — Cleanup work has ended in three of the states affected by BP’s massive 2010 oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said Monday.
The London-based oil refiner said the Coast Guard has concluded ‘‘active cleanup operations’’ in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, but the work continues along 84 miles of Louisiana’s shoreline....
The Coast Guard will continue responding to reports of oil washing up anywhere along the Gulf Coast. BP said it will take responsibility for removing any oil that came from its blown-out Macondo well.
‘‘This is another important step toward meeting our goal of returning the shoreline to as close to pre-spill conditions as possible while managing the scale of the response to meet conditions on the ground,’’ Coast Guard Captain Duke Walker said in a statement.
The director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf of Mexico Restoration Campaign said there is still much work to be done, including rapid shoreline assessment and cleanup after storms.
‘‘As much as one million barrels of oil from the disaster remain unaccounted for, and tar mats and tar balls from the spill continue to wash up on the coast,’’ said David White. ‘‘Regardless of how our shorelines are monitored, BP must be held accountable for the cleanup. We cannot just accept oiled material on our beaches and in our marshes as the ‘new normal.’ ’’
BP said it has spent more than $14 billion on response and cleanup activities....
Yeah, I say the commercial -- and it took one quarter's worth of profits to make it up (and then some).
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