Oil giant British Petroleum has agreed to pay a record fine of $4.5 billion to settle criminal charges related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. It’s the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history. Bloomberg News reporter Brian Swint is following the story in London.
“This should cover criminal charges against BP as a company,” Swint explains. Though BP already made a partial settlement with victims of the spill back in March, this money is intended to settle charges that have not even been filed yet. “It’s money that people hadn’t really known was going to come out of BP’s pocket.”
The crimes that BP is pleading guilty to? “From what we understand, the main thing will be for lying to Congress,” Swint says. “A couple of the engineers may be charged with man slaughter for the accident that killed eleven people in April 2010.”
“The big story out of it is that it will probably be a record fine for a company like this,” Swint says. “The environmental claims should be on the civil side…It’s quite a complex negotiation.”
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