Former Halliburton oil Exec charged with destroying evidence

[GostHacked]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24542464

Only a year in prison for this guy. The gulf is still messed up to this day. BP and the pack of criminals who run this company should all be in jail for the rest of their lives.

An ex-manager of US energy services giant Halliburton has admitted destroying evidence linked to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Anthony Badalamenti, 62, pleaded guilty in a US district court, and faces a maximum sentence of a year in prison.

The disaster - the biggest offshore oil spill in US history - was caused by an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 people.

Halliburton has already pleaded guilty to the unauthorised deletion of data.

The contractor is the third of three major companies at the heart of the huge oil spill to admit criminal wrongdoing.

BP and rig operator Transocean have already pleaded guilty to charges related to the disaster.

Halliburton was BP's cement contractor on the drilling rig that exploded.

Mr Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton, and is being accused of instructing his program manager to delete computer records.

[Wilber]

Article says it was a Halliburton exec, not BP.

[GostHacked]

Article says it was a Halliburton exec, not BP.

Sometimes it is really hard to tell them apart.

[Charles Anthony]

The details in the title were changed to encourage accuracy in the discussion.

[waldo]

Sometimes it is really hard to tell them apart.

in this case, not so much, as BP has turned on its contractors... in an earlier proceeding, BP had accused its contractor Halliburton of destroying evidence and asked it to pay for all damages. That ploy didn't work as Halliburton agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanour violation associated with the deletion of records, to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and to accept a term of three years probation... Halliburton also agreed to accept any related criminal responsibility for destroying records. Within this separate criminal trial referred to in the OP, it appears the referenced Halliburton exec mentioned in the OP linked article is the 'sacrificial criminal lamb'.

in any case, the crux of the second phase of the related civil trial, now in progress, is to establish liability and proportionate damages relative to the actual amount of oil released. The U.S. government claims 4.2 million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf... BP/Anadarko maintain 2.45 million barrels of oil were released. The government has rested its case and BP/Anadarko are set to argue later this week. At stake:

- in the judge only trial, if the BP/Anadarko estimate is accepted, and the judge decides only simple negligence was involved, the maximum fine possible would be $2.7 billion... if gross negligence was involved the maximum fine rises to $10.5 billion. If the U.S. government estimate is accepted, the maximum fines for simple negligence rise to $4.6 billion or $18 billion for gross negligence.

Edited October 15, 2013 by waldo

[GostHacked]

I think 'gross negligence' is an understatement.