Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

BP and Three Executives Facing Criminal Charges Over Oil Spill

Posted by Soulskill on from the now-spilling-lawyers-to-compensate dept.

New submitter SleazyRidr writes "Finally some news that will please a lot of the Slashdot crowd: a company has been charged with manslaughter! BP has been charged with manslaughter following the Macondo Incident. 'BP has agreed to pay $4.5 billion to settle the criminal charges and related Securities and Exchange Commission charges.' Two of the rig supervisors and a BP executive are also facing jail time. The supervisors are charged with 'failing to alert on-shore managers at the time they observed clear signs that the Macondo well was not secure and that oil and gas were flowing into the well,' and the supervisor is charged with 'obstruction of Congress and making false statements to law enforcement officials about the amount of oil flowing from the well.' Is this the start of companies being forced to take responsibility for their actions?"

5 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Corporations are people by Toe,+The · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who knew that could ever come back and bite them in the ass?

    1. Re:Corporations are people by vlm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh how I wish this wasn't posted AC...

      Thats exactly how an oligarchy works. Today, company A would love to raise prices to make more money, but B and C won't play along, so they can't. We now know for certain that company B will raise prices next week by X dollars. Therefore A and C will match and stash away the profit.

      Its not entirely bad, because its not so much a fine for BP as a reward via higher profits to all their competitors. If CEO compensation were related to profit (which it is not) then there would be intense pressure to not screw up and miss out on the fine platter of free profit.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  2. Not really by Safety+Cap · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When "BP" has to spend 180 days in prison like a regular person convicted of manslaughter then I'll believe it.

    Oh, and I'd want BP to be a registered felon, so no government jobs/contracts, no leaving the country and no crossing state lines without the court's okay.

    --
    Yeah, right.
    1. Re:Not really by dave562 · · Score: 5, Informative

      You got your second wish. The EPA denied BP the right to bid on oil contracts.

      http://blog.chron.com/lorensteffy/2012/11/in-suspending-bp-epa-does-what-drilling-regulators-would-not/

  3. Re:Scapegoats by buchner.johannes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The larger damage was not to manslaughter but to destroying a complete ecosystem - Privatizing profits and socializing losses in action. Companies trifle with natural resources because they know if it all fails, we will have to pull together to get out of it.

    On the same note, why can people put a price on a pirated mp3, but not on a long-term damaged ecosystem?

    --
    NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.