Report: Feds Ready Felony Charges in BP Oil Spill
Investigation said to focus on a handful of engineers and at least one supervisor.
| Posted Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011, at 10:20 AM
Photo by U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images.
The Wall Street Journal has this scoop: Federal prosecutors are said to be prepping to file the first criminal charges connected to last year’s Deepwater Horizon accident, which killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
It’s not clear exactly who will face charges, but the paper reports that the feds are focused on “several Houston-based engineers and at least one of their supervisors” at BP for allegedly providing false information to regulators about the risks associated with the Gulf of Mexico operation while the drilling was underway.
The felony charges could come early next year. If they involve providing false info in federal documents, they carry a penalty of up to five years in prison. Still, the paper concedes, the Justice Department may not press charges and could instead be using the threat of dosing so to pressure people to cooperate. The Journal has more here.
