Comments on: BP will admit crimes, pay $4.5 billion in Gulf spill settlement

By: Orlando Mark Shorter

Orlando Mark Shorter — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Well, BP sure as heck was more efficient clearing up the aftermarth than the US Govt. post Katrina. BP, as the foreign company, gets the blame & has to pay big fines, and Transocean and Halliburton not…

By: endrest

endrest — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:41:00 +0000

And that’s what gets me upset. Who’s going to jail for all the felony manslaughter charges?? No one. It’s a disgrace and exactly what the corporate shield protects against.

By: travtastic

travtastic — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 03:22:00 +0000

So how does this compare to the economic damage of their monumental negligence?

By: Ito Kagehisa

Ito Kagehisa — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Much like Fukushima, it’s still leaking.

By: Lupus_Yonderboy

Lupus_Yonderboy — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:44:00 +0000

I was wondering exactly this last night – sorry for the copypasta but I already made a response to EH above about the same thing:

“OK, so the *company* is a criminal, right? So can we put BP in ‘jail’ at ‘hard labor’ for a few years? Have the government restrict their corporate movements and take all the products of their labors, paying them a couple of pennies per hour into an account that they can have once they’re done?”

Why is this not the other side of the “Citizen’s United” coin? If corporations are people why can’t they be locked up when they commit crimes?

By: Lupus_Yonderboy

Lupus_Yonderboy — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:42:00 +0000

This is exactly what I said to my wife last night “OK, so the *company* is a criminal, right? So can we put BP in ‘jail’ at ‘hard labor’ for a few years? Have the government restrict their corporate movements and take all the products of their labors, paying them a couple of pennies per hour into an account that they can have once they’re done?”

Why is this not the other side of the “Citizen’s United” coin? If corporations are people why can’t they be locked up when they commit crimes?

By: donovan acree

donovan acree — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:36:00 +0000

How are these settlements applied? Are they placed in a general fund? Used to clean up the area? What?

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:50:00 +0000

Wow. That’s disgusting. The executive that ordered corners to be cut and concrete to not be poured should be going to jail.

By: lutzray

lutzray — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:15:00 +0000

Where are the Yes Men?

By: Won Word

Won Word — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:03:00 +0000

That would be…zero

By: Won Word

Won Word — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:02:00 +0000

The poor? Little gnats wasting Mighty BP’s time!

By: Mark Duanburge

Mark Duanburge — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:08:00 +0000

Xeni asks: “How much of that do you imagine will make it to the poor and working-class families whose homes, bodies, and lives were damaged or destroyed by the toxic disaster? ”

BP Answers:

Since May 2010, more than $6.2 billion had been paid to individuals and businesses through the claims process. During 2011, individuals and businesses received $3.1 billion in payments through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. More than 189,000 individuals and businesses claimants accepted full and final settlements, while about 33,000 received interim payments.

By: Marios P.

Marios P. — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 06:56:00 +0000

perhaps if all fuckups like this one were demanded to pay a few billion $$ for each one companies would find it cheaper to invest in better safety measures or even renewables.

By: DewiMorgan

DewiMorgan — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:45:00 +0000

Ah, the other linked articles. Fair enough.

By: DewiMorgan

DewiMorgan — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:44:00 +0000

Their announcement says nothing about admission or payment. Where’s that coming from?

By: Bokonon

Bokonon — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:32:00 +0000

BP has not paid any of the residents of the area, who are also suffering innumerable physical ailments a single penny.

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 02:07:00 +0000

Hmmm, that would be the equivalent of a prison sentence if corporations are people.

Or maybe we need something like the old Athenian ostracon punishment. Wealthy troublemakers were put into temporary exile and their assets were turned over to a temporary manager. The exile was allowed money to live on and all his property was returned after the exile.

By: johnyaya

johnyaya — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:52:00 +0000

Well, since corporations are people and this particular person named BP has committed crimes (possibly even manslaughter) then clearly BP is going to jail right?

By: foobar

foobar — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:17:00 +0000

So how long will their operations be halted for the prison sentence?

By: EH

EH — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:53:00 +0000

Yet another topic that didn’t come up in the election campaigns. Since this is for criminal charges, who’s going to prison?

By: Lobster

Lobster — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:36:00 +0000

I heard they pinned some manslaughter charges on the supervisor. Basically the lowest rung on the ladder they could conceivably blame.

By: Phoc Yu

Phoc Yu — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:32:00 +0000

That’s all well and good, but who’s going to jail for the 11 people on the platform who died?

Compensation for the victims is nice (if any money makes it to them), but if corporations can have free speech as part of corporate personhood, we need to be able to put those corporations’ leaders in jail for outright criminal behavior, or be able to impose the “death penalty” on corporations responsible for crimes and revoke their ability to do business in the states.

By: Nylund

Nylund — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:11:00 +0000

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how much in federal subsidies BP will be getting from the Federal Gov’t this year?

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:04:00 +0000

This settlement ideally lays the groundwork (admitted crimes) for those claims. And I’m glad for it, if it does.

By: PhosPhorious

PhosPhorious — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:52:00 +0000

I think it’s a “tragedy of the first proportion” that the poor plutocrats of BP had to pay this fine.

Obviously I’m joking and thank GOD the republicans lost.

By: david woolford

david woolford — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:51:00 +0000

While we’re on the subject, any update on Bhopal’s settlement figure?

By: Eddie Bax

Eddie Bax — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:50:00 +0000

None of the $4.5B will go to the poor and working-class families; there’s a previous $7.8B settlement waiting to be signed off on for that. This settlement also doesn’t prevent civil Clean Water Act claims from the DOJ and state governments.

By: Conspirator

Conspirator — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:48:00 +0000

This is the criminal portion, not the civil portion. Didn’t BP already pay a lot (probably not enough I’m sure) during the period directly after the spill? Remember the republican congressman being upset that BP was a victim of a “shakedown” by Obama? If I recall right it was something like $20 billion that they were paying for the clean up and compensation to those harmed by the spill. Here’s a source from last year with some of the numbers: http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=267872 (via wikipedia).

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:46:00 +0000

The reflection of the fire on the water looks lovely.

Can’t we at least give them credit for that?