[classicman]

BP: Big Fines, Good News
Brian Wingfield 10.25.07

It's been rough few years for BP. Allegations of illegal propane trading. Massive oil spills in Alaska. A deadly explosion at a Texas refinery. All this since 2003. Such catastrophes would cripple or kill most companies.

In an effort to wipe the slate clean and return to the business of making money - which it seems to do very well - the London-based oil and gas giant agreed Thursday to:

*pay $373 million in fines and restitution for violating U.S. environmental laws and defrauding customers through manipulation of energy markets. In addition,
*four of its former traders were charged with wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiring to corner the propane market.

*The company must pay must pay $50 million for a March 2005 explosion at the company's Texas City refinery that killed 15 contractors and injured more than 170 others.

The fine is part of BP's penalty for pleading guilty to violating the Clean Air Act when it failed to keep dangerous gases from being released at the refinery. The fine--the largest ever assessed under this particular environmental law--comes with a three year probationary period. BP will pay:

*$12 million in criminal fines, as well as
*$4 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and
*$4 million to the state of Alaska, for violating the Clean Water Act and for its criminal liability due to crude oil leaks from its pipelines in 2006. The fines in this case are part of a separate guilty plea by BP.

Finally, the company agreed to pay:
*$100 million criminal penalty fee, plus
*$25 million to the U.S. Postal Inspection Consumer Fraud Fund,
as well as a
*$125 million civil penalty to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission so the company can defer prosecution in an Illinois court for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud.

And if that weren't enough, the company must pay
*$53 million to victims of its propane trading scheme
the largest manipulation settlement in the history of the CFTC.

"These agreements are an admission that, in these instances, our operations failed to meet our own standards and the requirements of the law," said BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone, in a statement. "For that, we apologize."

BP's recent run-ins with the law began more than four years ago, when propane traders tried to sell the fuel at an artificially high price in 2003 and 2004. The refinery explosion the following year was the next blow for the company. But in March 2006 came the biggest PR disaster of all: a 200,000-gallon oil spill onto an Alaskan tundra and frozen lake, the biggest in the history of the state's North Slope. Five months later, a 1,000 gallon oil leak exposed further negligence of BP's pipelines.

Sounds like quite a drubbing for any company to take. And BP has already coughed up at least $1.6 billion to compensate the victims of the explosion, the company says.

Link

A link with some of BP's history and its fines/penalties.

BP had just come off probation in 2008.

**Note the date of this article...(top of the page)