BP Faces $4.5 billion Bill and Criminal Charges

In 2010, British Petroleum's (BP) oil drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon, exploded into the largest oil spill disaster in the history of the petroleum industry killing 11 workers and injuring over a dozen more. The spill washed up on the beaches of the Gulf Coast of Mexico where both environmental volunteers and BP workers have banded together to clean up to this day, but the U.S. government and its constituents demanded to know what happened and how from the very beginning.

As always, corporate leadership spun the wheel of blame and refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing while experts in oil drilling equipment quickly honed in on several errors in operational standards. BP executives would not admit to any responsibility until "the investigation had been completed," but now two years later, it has been discovered that BP committed perjury and obstructed justice by deliberately making false statements to the government. What do you know? American suspicions following Google's decision to block satellite imagery along the Gulf Coast during the height of the crises has been well-grounded all along. U.S. Congressman Harry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) has gone public about this and not only has the government penalized BP for an extra $4.5 billion in penalties and fees, but 3 BP executives are facing criminal prosecution with 2 facing manslaughter charges.

The rate of the oil spill was grossly underestimated to reflect minimal damage to the environment, so the third of the 3 executives facing criminal prosecution is being charged with lying to authorities. The news media will claim this $4.5 billion bill "dwarfs" other corporate fines and penalties such as in the case of Pfizer at $1.2 billion in 2009. Although true, this is somewhat misleading. What they have negated from earlier this year is 5 U.S. banks agreeing to settle for $25 billion because of homeowners victimization from pre-2008 predatory-lending practices, which precipitated the $5 trillion mortgage crises. This $4.5 billion should be viewed as nothing more than a "slap on the wrist" - a show.