SEC Looking Into Possible BP Securities Violations

WASHINGTON -- BP says the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are conducting informal inquiries into securities matters arising from the Gulf oil spill.

BP disclosed the probe Tuesday in a filing with the SEC, marking the latest development in the evolving government investigations following the April 20 explosion and fire on the BP-operated drilling rig Deepwater Horizon that touched off the environmental disaster.

The oil company's disclosure came at the end of a written summary of events that have taken place since June 1, when the Justice Department announced it is conducting criminal and civil investigations.

In its latest filing, the company said it is possible the Justice Department will seek to charge BP with violations of U.S. civil or criminal laws.

BP's filing at the SEC added that other federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, are expected to seek penalties under the Clean Water Act and other laws.

Citizens groups have sued or have issued notices of intent to do so under the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws, the BP filing said, and other agencies, including the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, may begin or already have begun probes.

Separately, The Washington Post reported that a law enforcement official said criminal investigators will look for evidence that inspectors from the Minerals Management Service were bribed or promised industry jobs in exchange for lenient treatment.

Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the former MMS, which is now called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, declined to comment.

A spokeswoman in the office of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten in New Orleans declined to comment Tuesday night.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Comments

[videogirl]

04:31 PM on 07/31/2010

As to the use of dispersants in the Gulf, follow the money:
BP Oil Spill and EPA: It's 9/11 $Deja vu$
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6P3w1qJRiM

[RightsGuy]

10:24 PM on 07/28/2010

Everyone,

Get your free PROSECUTE BP bumper sticker here:

http://stickerobot.com/bp/

You can also download and print your own. Hang them up everywhere!

[Sundialsvc4]

03:45 PM on 07/28/2010

Please advise the various Commissioners to look in their e-mail boxes. Inside they will find references to $10 million per-person "campaign contributions."

(What? You say they're not elected? Oh, whatever. "Campaign (wink, wink!) contributions.")

Please advise them also that identical references will be available tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and the next, "until this 'silly problem' goes away." We trust that the certain prospect of, say, $100 million in cold, hard, do-re-mi (per person!) will have an amazingly fruitful effect upon them.

And as for the rest of the 309 million poor schleps in this country ... "let them eat cake."

[themodernleader]

02:54 PM on 07/28/2010

There is no regulation of big corporations and Wall Street. There are public releases. There are promises. There are settlements without any admission of guilt for the most outrageous thievery and dishonesty. Nobody is fired. No CEO is ever found guilty of anything. In this defaulting government the criminals in powerful positions are never punished. Many of them have been rewarded. Now their arrogance and insolence will be the backdrop for more heinous crimes against our Republic and people.
Crimes that go unpunished are followed with more terrible crimes. Criminals who are rewarded, not punished, can be expected to commit future crimes that may attempt to overthrow the government.

[Levi Erik]

01:54 PM on 07/28/2010

These guys need to stop messing around and put the focus on fixing the wellhead and cleaning up and THEN place the blame and do all this.. I mean.. it's been 100 days!! WTF?!

This guy makes me sick. All he did was screw things up and cry and complain about his own life and not about the thousands of others in the gulf that he has destroyed.

Full story outlining the 100th day of the oil spill: http://www.bestfunnyblog.com/world-news/gulf-oil-spill-day-100/

[commonsense68130]

12:00 PM on 07/28/2010

But who's going to watch the SEC?

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/07/28/sec-says-new-finreg-law-exempts-public-disclosure/

Why would the Dems put this in?

[cambo]

11:54 AM on 07/28/2010

I long to see the day we live in a renewable solar and wind energy society where the word "spill" is a thing of the past, as is air pollution.

[iridium53]

11:44 AM on 07/28/2010

SEC looking into security violations?

So they can fine the shareholders.

And, make things worse.

Again?

[BlueGreen55]

01:41 PM on 07/28/2010

Poor shareholders. NOT!

Maybe shareholders should demand honest and ethical Boards of Director and CEOs instead of rubber stamping whatever incestous, self-congratulating, and unaccountable-to-everything-but-a-dollar jerks they have now.

[mrJJ]

11:07 AM on 07/28/2010

Criminal probe of oil spill to focus on 3 firms and their ties to regulators
Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A team of federal investigators known as the "BP squad" is assembling in New Orleans to conduct a wide-ranging criminal probe that will focus on at least three companies and examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to law enforcement and other sources.

The squad at the FBI offices includes investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal agencies, the sources said. In addition to BP, the firms at the center of the inquiry are Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig to BP, and engineering giant Halliburton, which had finished cementing the well only 20 hours before the rig exploded April 20, sources said.

snip

One emerging line of inquiry, sources said, is whether inspectors for the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency charged with regulating the oil industry -- which is itself investigating the disaster -- went easy on the companies in exchange for money or other inducements. A series of federal audits has documented the MMS's close relationship with the industry.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072706052.html