NYT: With Criminal Charges For Oil Spill, Costs To BP Could Soar
As BP
watches its bill rise quickly for the oil
spill, including $20 billion it is setting aside for claims, it
could find the tally growing much faster in coming months if the United States Department of Justice files criminal
charges against the company.
Based on the latest estimates, for example, the daily civil fine for the escaping oil alone could be $280 million. But criminal penalties, if imposed, could cause the costs to balloon still further, said David M. Uhlmann, a law professor at the University of Michigan, who headed the environmental crimes section of the Justice Department from 2000 to 2007.
Read the entire New York Times article here.
Based on the latest estimates, for example, the daily civil fine for the escaping oil alone could be $280 million. But criminal penalties, if imposed, could cause the costs to balloon still further, said David M. Uhlmann, a law professor at the University of Michigan, who headed the environmental crimes section of the Justice Department from 2000 to 2007.
Read the entire New York Times article here.
Based on the Congressional report of the accident, it is clear that you could prove gross negligence. Criminality, will be harder to prove.
However, contrary to an earlier poster's statement, it's not impossible to get criminal charges against a corporation, cf. Humana/HCA in its multimillion medicare fraud case. The corporation was found criminally liable, but in that case there was little doubt that the hospital chain had the requisite criminal intent, i.e. they intended to defraud medicare. Here I think it would be hard to prove that BP intended to blow up the well and kill 11 people. I don't see Tony Hayward in hand cuffs being perp walked to a federal court house. (For one thing, he will flee back to England where the English courts will do their best to "protect" him as the Brits are beginning to see this whole episode as just anti-British sentiment.)
Right now I think Holder's swaggering around the Gulf and yelling about criminal charges is just a public relations stunt to pacify the "little people." It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Most importantly from a pure legal, as opposed to PR, standpoint, nothing has been done to raise the $75M liability cap.
Stephanie Mcnealy
http://www.famous-philanthropists.org
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