Don Blankenship: Investors, Politicians Begin Calling For Massey Head To Resign

The calls to oust Massey Energy Company Chairman and CEO Don Blankenship began in earnest Monday, with members of both the private and public sectors getting involved.

The CtW Investment Group sent a letter to Massey's board of directors Monday afternoon demanding Blankenship's resignation in the wake of the disastrous explosion at the company's Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.

CtW had previously warned the board that its minimal oversight over Blankenship's regime exposed Massey and its shareholders to "unnecessary legal, regulatory, and reputational risks" -- apparently vindicated in that judgment, the investment group deems the Upper Big Branch disaster a "tragic consequence" of Blankenship's "confrontational approach to regulatory compliance."

He's not fond of investigative reporters, either. Check out his reaction to an ABC News camera crew at about the one-minute mark:

Earlier Monday, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli likewise called for Blankenship's resignation. And DiNapoli is no idle politico: As the sole trustee of New York's Common Retirement Fund, he has direct control over some 303,550 shares of Massey stock, valued at $14.1 million.

"Massey's cavalier attitude toward risk and callous disregard for the safety of its employees has exacted a horrible cost on dozens of hard-working miners and their loved ones," DiNapoli said in a statement. "This tragedy was a failure both of risk management and effective board oversight. Blankenship must step down and make room for more responsible leadership at Massey."

Read Monday's full CtW letter below:

April 12, 2010
Bobby R. Inman
Lead Director
c/o Corporate Secretary
Massey Energy Company
P.O. Box 26765
Richmond, Virginia 23261

Dear Admiral Inman,

We are disappointed by your failure to respond to our March 31 letter, in which we communicated our intent to oppose the three directors up for election at Massey Energy's May 18, 2010 shareholder meeting unless the board of directors takes immediate steps to enhance its independence and accountability. In the wake of the subsequent Upper Big Branch mine disaster, we call on the board to also immediately seek the resignation of Donald L. Blankenship as Chairman and CEO.

We believe the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, which claimed the lives of 29 miners, is the tragic consequence of the board's failure to challenge Chairman and CEO Donald L. Blankenship confrontational approach to regulatory compliance. As you know, we first raised this as a shareholder concern in our March 31 letter, in which we specifically cited the board's "inability to exercise independent oversight of [Mr.] Blankenship."

The CtW Investment Group works with pension funds sponsored by unions affiliated with Change to Win, a coalition of unions representing six million members. These funds, together with public pension funds in which members of CtW unions participate, are substantial long-term Massey shareholders.

In our March 31 letter we delineated various indicators of an entrenched and unaccountable board. Most presciently, we echoed the shareholder concerns first raised in a June 13, 2007 board resignation letter from former directors Daniel S. Loeb and Todd Q. Swanson. These include the board's "misguided insistence on keeping [Mr. Blankenship] in place as CEO" and its "unwillingness to confront the company's "poor risk management" and "confrontational handling of environmental and regulatory matters."

Under Chairman and CEO Blankenship's domineering leadership, Massey Energy placed short-term production and profit goals ahead of prudent risk management, with devastating consequences for the corporation, its shareholders and employees. In light of these consequences, the urgent need for new leadership is apparent.

We have raised these issues with institutional shareholders assembled today in Washington, DC for the Spring Meeting of the Council of Institutional Investors and anticipate strong support

Sincerely,

William Patterson
Executive Director

cc: board of directors

Comments

[From the Raft]

01:39 PM on 04/14/2010

Why would the investment manager of an employee pension fund invest in Massey?

[wdw505]

10:43 PM on 04/14/2010

because the stock holders put him in charge

[wdw505]

11:21 AM on 04/14/2010

CtW Investment Group owns what percent of the stock?

[Chuckie Corra]

12:39 AM on 04/14/2010

This guy is a humongous dick-sickle and a cancerous tumor to the state.

[InfosolutionWiz]

01:37 PM on 04/14/2010

AGREE 100%!!

[libdemannie]

06:15 PM on 04/13/2010

If the authorities cannot find anything on the books that Blankenship hasn't done to land in jail, our laws are inadequate. It shows that we do not value life regardless what all the right to lifers bellow.

[wdw505]

07:15 PM on 04/13/2010

the only law WV has on the books covering this is

§55-7-5. Action for death by wrongful act.
Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default, and the act, neglect or default is such as would (if death had not ensued) have entitled the party injured to maintain an action to recover damages in respect thereof, then, and in every such case, the person who, or the corporation which, would have been liable if death had not ensued, shall be liable to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances as amount in law to murder in the first or second degree, or manslaughter. No action, however, shall be maintained by the personal representative of one who, not an infant, after injury, has compromised for such injury and accepted satisfaction therefor previous to his death. Any right of action which may hereafter accrue by reason of such injury done to the person of another shall survive the death of the wrongdoer, and may be enforced against the executor or administrator, either by reviving against such personal representative a suit which may have been brought against the wrongdoer himself in his lifetime, or by bringing an original suit against his personal representative after his death, whether or not the death of the wrongdoer occurred before or after the death of the injured party.”

[bepa]

07:38 AM on 04/14/2010

How do you know that this is the "only" law in WV that covers death caused by and during the commission of crimes?

The law you cite seems applicable to damages. The law many of us want enforced is criminal enforcement of the law.

People should go to jail!!! for murder..just as an arsonist would go to jail for the murder of any person who was killed in a fire that was set for profit.

This company and its owners willfully disregarded the law in order to make profits and people died as a result.

Blankenship is unqualified to make judgments about mine safety since his only degree is in accounting.

Imo he was set up as the fall guy for others who knew the mine was unsafe and could cause deaths. Those people are guilty of murder and should go to trial and if convicted sent to jail as murderers.

[sandzw007]

02:36 PM on 04/13/2010

Mr. Blakenship should be fired and investigated for fraud, bribery and whatever else may pertain.
The shareholders have known of his ways for a long time and must have condoned his actions as long as he gave them the profits they wanted. If the Board is now feeling bad then it should fire and investigate Mr. Blakenship, find the best new guy/gal they can to make their mine the best it can be and help all the families who lost their loved ones.

[pissedmichael]

01:48 PM on 04/13/2010

Yeah, right. Where were these guys when Blankenship was violating all the regulations that led to the disaster in the first place? Probably, raking in the profits and asking no questions. As far as I'm concerned, like the Katrina and it's aftermath, this was an unnecessary and man-made disaster, with a government beauracracy looking anywhere but where it's mandate directed them to look.

[johndtuttle]

02:14 PM on 04/13/2010

The regulations were written in black and white and were ignored by Blankenship while he tried to maximize profit and his paycheck.

The only bureaucracy that screwed up leading to deaths in the aftermath was named Bush and Rumsfield (who refused to send in Army relief for 5 days because it wasn't his job).

They couldn't be bothered to do their jobs while thousands died through incompetence.

[wdw505]

02:22 PM on 04/13/2010

oh bama is in charge now.........laughing.........that happened under oh bama's watch not bush's

[Eris23Skidoo]

12:47 PM on 04/13/2010

He should be sued by the families to his last penny. He should be forced to wear a tattoo on his face that proclaims him a murderer and spend the rest of his days in shame.

[wdw505]

12:55 PM on 04/13/2010

ya that will happen..........do you understand what a corporation even is..........and the purpose of a corporate veil......he is just an employee........

[Acharn]

06:47 AM on 04/14/2010

Yeah, right! That's the way it's supposed to work, and it has't worked that way for at least seventy years. He's SUPPOSED to be just an employee. In fact the shareholders have no power to do anything to him, even reduce his salary. He's chairman of the board of directors and the other directors are all his buddies or owe him. Nobody on the board of directors is going to argue with him, much less agree to fire him. The letter quoted in the story already shows that.

[gsmith3286]

12:26 PM on 04/13/2010

CEO Blankenship looks at fines as just another cost of doing business....

What he and others like him don't like is .....losing their freedom!!

Bring on the criminal charges!!!!... Give them JAIL TIME!!

[wdw505]

12:29 PM on 04/13/2010

for what

[donitacurioso]

12:33 PM on 04/13/2010

Ignore.

[johndtuttle]

01:30 PM on 04/13/2010

murder for profit?

[jaslyn]

12:18 PM on 04/13/2010

gee, a soulless, corrupt CEO. Who'd a thunk it?

[confused most times]

09:44 AM on 04/13/2010

How come all these investment groups, now say they knew that management didn't care for safety regulations for the workers, sat back and counted their dividends and increased stock values these past years?

[ron071]

11:27 AM on 04/13/2010

The answer is simple in that they chose to ignore miner safety until their investment values became threatened. These guys care little about anything but profits. This Blankenship guy is a throwback to the robber barons of old. These ruthless individuals must be excised from society just as the barons were herded out of existence by regulatory reform with teeth. No person with an ounce of decency would allow a dictator like Blankenship to run a company and put honest working families at continual risk for some more dollars. Also, remember that the miners were responsible in that they allowed themselves to be cowed and not organize into unions which would have achieved necessary protections. The greedy and the cowed allowed the ruthless to stay in control of their lives.

[wdw505]

11:52 AM on 04/13/2010

just sit tight until after the show hearings start in congress then purchase the January 2012 35-strike call, which is in-the-money by 13 dollars and has about 20 months until expiration. This is an undeniably bullish bet, but it is a conservative one, as we are giving a long time for the ramifications of the accident to manifest themselves. This call is currently priced at $19.60, so for $1,960, a trader can purchase the right to buy 100 shares of MEE for $35 per share. If MEE collapses completely and goes out of business, the most the call buyer can lose is $1,960 (compared to the $4,845 risked by the stock trader). If MEE rallies, the principal of leverage can come in to benefit the call buyer. The profit/loss chart below illustrates this option at expiration in January 2012. If MEE rallies quickly, however, the percentage gain in the call option could be even greater (as the calls would still contain an element of time value). For example, if MEE were to hit $60 by the end of this summer, the call could be priced at $27.90 (all other factors being equal). That’s a percentage return of 42% compared to the stock buyer’s 24% return.

not bad .....not bad at all

[piezopete]

08:55 AM on 04/13/2010

The real ring leader to all of this corruption and sleaze is Admiral Bobby R. Innman and Blankenship is nothing more than his stooge. Wake up folks and peel the onion the real problem is much higher up in the organization. Notice Innmans failure to respond to the letter by William Patterson?

[axollot]

10:31 AM on 04/13/2010

While I agree that Innman should also be held responsible, Blankenship is on the record against mandated safety regulations - all dressed up in the US flag from head to toe as he said it too. How very American!

[bepa]

08:34 AM on 04/13/2010

Blankenship is a fall guy

His only education is as a certified public accountant

Blankenship has been the front for the people who are hidden from us now. They will throw him over to save themselves

INVESTIGATE
INVESTIGATE
INVESTIGATE

and PROSECUTE the people who put Blankenship, an accountant, in charge of a mine they knew had safety violations.These people are murderers

[wdw505]

12:05 PM on 04/13/2010

don't be stupid

the definition of murder is The unlawful killing of another human being without justification or excuse.

[donitacurioso]

12:23 PM on 04/13/2010

Don't be a jerk. You're giving a legal definition of the word murder, which is only relevant in court. These people are murderers nonetheless.
Do you have a problem with the rest of bepa's post?

[Eris23Skidoo]

12:52 PM on 04/13/2010

Ever heard of manslaughter? It is a different standard than "murder". It means that your actions resulted in the death of a human. They are guilty of manslaughter.

Don't be stupid, yourself. I remember you. You're evil.

[RetiredArmy04]

03:18 PM on 04/13/2010

The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, also known as the MINER Act, was signed by President George W. Bush on June 15, 2006. This legislation, the most significant mine safety legislation in 30 years, amends the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 and contains a number of provisions to improve safety and health in America's mines.

This page contains links to information about the MINER Act, including the text of the Act as published by the GPO. Please check this page frequently for updates, as several provisions of the MINER Act require further action by MSHA.

Wow it was a Republican that put into place "the most significant mine safety legislation in 30 years" I wonder why MSHA didn't enforce regulations and shut down the mine. If I'm not mistaken all mines have a MSHA representative on site.

[newpantaloons]

08:23 AM on 04/13/2010

If this jerk sent miners into a mine, knowing that methane was present, but didn't want to do anything to eliminate the methane because of the expense to the bottom line, then he should be charged and tried for MURDER!

What is the difference between sending 29 men to their death and shooting them with a gun? This kind of scenario is the "Grapes of Wrath" all over again. It's the 'culture of money, money, money' over the responsibility of putting PEOPLE'S LIVES over money that is the problem, and it must STOP!

What's happened to America?

[axollot]

09:32 AM on 04/13/2010

What happened to America - "Deregulation, let the free-market regulate itself" *sigh* and sadly I bet some of those miners would consider themselves Republicans.

[wdw505]

12:06 PM on 04/13/2010

don't be stupid

the definition of murder is The unlawful killing of another human being without justification or excuse.

[donitacurioso]

12:23 PM on 04/13/2010

Don't be a jerk.

[bepa]

07:09 PM on 04/13/2010

A crime was committed and innocent people were killed during the commission of the crime.

Its murder and a disregard for human life

[foodchain11]

07:56 AM on 04/13/2010

Rules were not developed capriciously; they resulted from tragic illnesses and deaths as with asbestos, coal. The defiance of these rules suggests that learning won't happen from this very sad event. The larger tragedy will be the continuance of this "culture war" where this is not viewed as something to be fixed but rather another source of anger at the government.

We have imprisoned executives from Enron, Tyco and Worldcom, all in stunning display. It cased the demise of Arthur Anderson in addition to personal financial loss. We then went promptly to the mortgage and bank failures. It is the attitude that "beating/gaming the system, of being king-makers, of playing God that needs to change.

Now, where's my coffee!

[wdw505]

08:17 AM on 04/13/2010

nothing is wrong with playing the system tell me the rules and i'll play by them or with them my choice

one of my buildings were covered by new zoning that stated no neon can be use if it can be seen from the outside.......i now use argon light on the loading dock to signal the freight haulers for which dock to use and how close they are to the dock

we were issued a ticket a day for using our lighting this continued for 3 weeks until we received a court order to discontinue the use of our neon lighting. In the zoning office we filed an appeal as we have no neon on the property and had no idea why we were being ticketed and filed the same with the courts. they continued ticketing everyday.......the appeal was scheduled for 4 weeks we asked for a continuance as that date was not convenient for us. A total of 12 weeks after the first ticket i was called before the court for contempt all i did was bring in the court order to discontinue lighting we didn't own as all mean invoices stated that i had argon light not neon........playing with the system sometimes can indeed be funny

[Eris23Skidoo]

12:55 PM on 04/13/2010

You're a rabid dog. You are foaming at the mouth.

[RetiredArmy04]

02:54 PM on 04/13/2010

lol I bet the liberal judge you went in front of hated you for playing the system

[jimstaro]

07:20 AM on 04/13/2010

Well of course they do, this after they've reaped huge profits off the sweat and hard work of the miners, laughing all the way to the bank and backed the companies fighting of fines for regulation violations while not pushing for stronger safety measures and worker unionizing, and now that wealth has much more blood attached to it, Blood and Murder!!

Now they want him gone so they can get back to the good life and push out the extreme negative while pushing the miners there back into the same!!

[wdw505]

07:44 AM on 04/13/2010

oh stop.........murder?

[impatient]

08:10 AM on 04/13/2010

murder: An extreme disregard for human life.
accident: an unfortunate mishap.

I'd say murder.

[Eris23Skidoo]

12:59 PM on 04/13/2010

Lemme guess. Workers have died at your loading dock? You know deep down that you are responsible, so you laugh it off because you want to pretend that your employees died because of their own stupidity and their "choice" of being born into the working class? One day, you fool, your gated community will burn down. When you've crossed the final line and you finally discover that all the money in the world doesn't protect you; when you find out that you and the one-percenters are the tiniest minority. Your home will be looted and burned and you yourself will probably be crucified.