New Orleans – By charging and arresting a former BP executive, the U.S. Justice Department showed its hand in Gulf of Mexico oil spill case. The federal prosecutors said they were investigating whether the oil company and its employees violated the law by purposefully lowballing the amount of crude spewed from its blown-out oil well.
Two years after the Deepwater Horizon accident, a 50-year-old Katy man named Kurt Mix was arrested a few days back. He was arrested for allegedly deleting approximately three hundred text messages indicating that the actual amount of released crude was far greater than what BP disclosed to the public. The case brings the very first criminal charges in the Deepwater Horizon investigation that the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting.
According to legal experts, this is only an initial move by the Department of Justice. As the ongoing investigation progresses, more arrests are likely.
The charges might not affect a proposed settlement for resolving the oil spill-related claims filed by around 100000 Gulf residents and businesses, who are suing the oil giant over financial loss they suffered on account of the disaster.
