The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday it has filed criminal charges against the two highest-ranking British Petroleum (BP) supervisors aboard the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig, as well as against a former BP executive accused of misleading officials on the flow of oil that resulted in the biggest marine oil spill in U.S. history.
The announcement followed the disclosure of a deal in which BP pleaded guilty to 14 criminal charges and agreed to pay $4 billion in fines and penalties, the “single largest total criminal resolution in the history of the United States,” Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference in New Orleans. “Everything that we are capable of doing in the criminal sphere we have done today, and this is unprecedented,” he said. BP also paid an additional fee exceeding $520 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which charged BP with misleading investors about the cost estimate of the disaster.
U.S. authorities are accusing the two top BP supervisors aboard the Deepwater Horizon with 23 criminal counts, including 11 counts of seaman’s slaughter, 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter, and Clean Water Act violations, Mr. Holder said.
Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West said that the settlement will “have an impact on the ongoing civil case we’re vigorously pursuing,” in which the U.S. claims BP committed gross negligence. If that allegation is proven, the company could face about $20 billion in penalties and fines, about four times more than if the company is found to simply have been negligent, according to analysts.
