BP Oil Spill Produces First FRAUD CASE

It was almost inevitable that fraud would emerge from this process and it has. According to the article below, federal prosecutors filed the first spill-related criminal charges this week. Claims Administrator Kenneth Feinberg says, "If eligible claimants or the public believe that the program is ripe for fraud, we'll receive claims without merit that tie up the system, that divert badly needed funds from worthy victims to criminals, and the entire program will suffer
     June

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First fraud case emerges from BP oil spill
- USATODAY.com:

After fielding hundreds of fraud complaints from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, federal prosecutors filed the first spill-related criminal charges this week against a North Carolina woman whom they allege pretended to be an unemployed oyster shucker to claim lost wages.

The National Center for Disaster Fraud in Baton Rouge has logged about 1,000 complaints since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico, says U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, who oversees the center.

The complaints have led to hundreds of investigations into businesses demanding advance fees to help oil spill victims file claims or train for oil spill cleanup jobs, and into dubious charities soliciting donations to rescue wildlife or restore Gulf Coast habitat, Letten says.

"With the increasing number of cases under investigation, there will be charges coming down the road," he says. "We know there are viable investigations out there."

Fraud hurts the credibility of the Gulf Coast claims process, claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg says.

"If eligible claimants or the public believe that the program is ripe for fraud, we'll receive claims without merit that tie up the system, that divert badly needed funds from worthy victims to criminals, and the entire program will suffer," Feinberg says. "There are scores of suspicious claims that we have sent or are sending to the Department of Justice."

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Gulf Oil Drilling OPEN FOR BUSINESS As Region Suffers

The Obama administration announced last week that the deep waters of the Gulf are again open for drilling, according to the following article. Obviously, the BP oil disaster is continuing and will have lasting effects on the environment and the people of the Gulf region. People in the fishing industry are still out of work, the effects on wildlife have not been fully assessed, the safety of our seafood is still in question. There will be questions for generations and more expenses for BP.
     . . . .  June

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Gulf reopen for drilling as region suffers
CNN.com:

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Last week, the Obama administration announced that the deep waters of the Gulf are again open for drilling. That the BP oil disaster is continuing and will have lasting effects is unacknowledged.

The BP disaster was the largest oil catastrophe the country has ever seen, and the Gulf of Mexico and our communities have a long road to recovery.

Our friends in the fishing industry are still out of work, the effects of the spill on wildlife have not been fully assessed, the safety of our seafood is still in question and entire cultures are barely hanging on.

The administration says new rules and regulations will make deepwater oil drilling safer.

Although we welcome the new rules, we believe that they do not go far enough. There is little assurance that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, charged with enforcement, has the resources to hold the industry accountable.
 
Gulf Restoration Network believes further steps must be taken immediately to ensure the safety of oil drilling in deep off-shore waters. The government and the public need to stay focused on the disaster and environmental impacts that are just beginning to play out, continue to hold BP accountable and act to make sure this never happens again.

We hope the Obama administration approaches continued cleanup, regulatory reform and damage mitigation, none of which is even close to being accomplished, with the same urgency it has shown in efforts to reopen the Gulf to deepwater drilling.


BP's spill is only the latest and most visible evidence of the oil and gas industry's ongoing environmental destruction in the Gulf.

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Slow Payout of BP claims blamed on FRAUD!

 Apparently, there's a reason why compensation for DP claims is so slow. According to the following article, many of the claims are poorly documented, not documented at all or outright fraud. I can see how a documentation problem could  happen with small fishermen and shrimpers who probably make a minimum income anyway and don't keep much paperwork. What a mess!
    . . . June


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Leader on BP claims blames fraud for slow payouts
Yahoo! News: "By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer Brian Skoloff,

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – BP's $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Gulf oil spill has been inundated with inflated or unsupported claims and in some cases, outright fraud — all slowing down the process of getting money to people who need and deserve it, the administrator of the program says.

Kenneth Feinberg said more than a third of the roughly 104,000 applicants need to do more to back up their claims, and thousands of claims have no documentation at all. He added that the amount sought in some cases bears no resemblance to actual losses, such as a fisherman's claim for $10 million 'on what was obviously a legitimate claim of a few thousand dollars.'

"People can put down on a claims form all sorts of numbers," he said.

At the same time, hundreds of claims that were initially denied have been accepted as Feinberg adjusts rules for compensation, such as whether people need to be physically close to the spill to get paid.

"At the beginning, it's always rough," said Feinberg, an attorney who previously oversaw claims for 9/11 victims. "Hopefully, by the end of this program, people will feel that the fund treated them fairly."

Many claimants are still waiting for checks from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which is doling out BP's money to oil spill victims. The Associated Press interviewed dozens who say they have received small fractions of the compensation they requested. Claims have been bogged down by the sheer volume of requests for money as livelihoods have crumbled since the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil over about three months.

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