$20 Billion Fraud -- Funds NOT for Victims of Disaster

[kpete]

Lawyers say shocked over uses of $20 billion Gulf fund
Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA
Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:19pm EDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A $20 billion fund set up by energy giant BP Plc after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should be used only to compensate victims, lawyers involved in litigation over the disaster said on Thursday.

U.S. | Green Business | Gulf Oil Spill

The lawyers said they were shocked that the fund was also for purposes other than compensating people suffering economic losses from the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Those purposes could include massive clean-up costs and litigation.

BP agreed to the fund under pressure from the White House as public anger runs high over the undersea leak that began at a BP deepwater well in April and continues to spew oil into the Gulf, damaging tourism, fisheries and fragile ecosystems.

"That was sold to the American public as a compensation fund. And now we have learned that they can use it for whatever the heck they want to use it for," said Robert Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and activist.

"It's another subterfuge by BP, one of the many that we have discovered recently," Kennedy told Reuters at a conference in Atlanta on litigation over the spill.

more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65N66H20100624?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r1:c0.257077:b35189252:z0
http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=1107833

[jp11]

1. I vote and I enjoy being told something that turns out to not be accurate by my government.

[anarch]

2. Ignorance is Strength

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and as somebody or other said, "You can fool all of the people some of the time, but you ca..."
ah fuck it.

[kirby]

3. Lame...

I think anyone with half a brain knows that this fund is to be held in escrow to cover the future clean up costs as well as victim compensation. I believe only $100 million has been allocated for 'victim' compensation so far.

[Turbineguy]

4. There are going to be a lot of upset lawyers

since this thing did an end run around them.

[Angry Dragon]

5. It is being set-up outside bp's control

Nothing is paid in or out yet is my understanding, so it is just something we will have to wait and see how it works

[valerief]

6. How could we EVER expect justice in this third world country? nt

[izzybeans]

7. So they know how this independent party will run the fund already?

right.

[MisterP]

8. as long as the GOP screams about Nazism, slush funds, and Daleyite shakedowns,

that fund is going to stay as-is, since any change would be a "concession"

it's very clever: the Pubs demand that a (Dem) wrongdoing be investigated, thereby torpedoing any actual investigation! WH undermining attempts against CO, AR, and PA primaries won't be investigated, since "it's the Republicans who want that investigated to sully the President." Cuccinelli's lawsuit will keep the insurance mandate going. the very cleverness of such an arrangement lies in its paradox!

political theater and demented, Bachmannite accusations can mask any hint of bipartisan collusion: if crackheads threaten an anti-choice Dem Representative--why, not only is he now non-conservative, he's good and must be defended! it also fosters the illusion of two parties totally at odds with each other, the Ds trying to get wonderful things passed and the Rs hamstringing them--so you better vote for more Ds! Republican obscenity, and anger exclusively for the Rs and Gs, keeps the focus off of what the Ds actually propose and believe.

of course, this whole tissue collapses once you look at all the issues, which is why the more--"loyal"--never do so; sometimes they focus on the lesser, hobbled liberal and reformist laws that do get passed (while oil leases are sold, BP is given control of policing, airspace, and the movements of reporters and volunteers, Afghans, Somalis, Iraqis, Pakistanis, and Palestinians languish and are murdered, the bankers get taxpayer money and permission to keep crashing the economy, homeowners are given the boot as bankers are paid even more, schools and Social Security are on the chopping block, und so weiter). there's a new meme or trope now--that the President is simply helpless and overwhelmed and that us whiny babies should shut our traps about the pace he's cleaning things up--and we're constantly reassured that he is cleaning things up, and that regulation and Keynesianism are "back." the actual evidence, however, points more to soft imperialism and neoliberalism, with a few bones thrown our way as proof that he's so liberal.

[IOKIYAL]

9. Your Title Is Very Misleading

The fund IS FOR victims AND now it seems for clean up and other stuff. I don't see anywhere in that article where it says victims can't get their money. PLUS there is no cap.

[dipsydoodle]

10. Does anyone have a link

to a statement that it ever was intended SOLELY for victims of the disaster ?

[imnKOgnito]

11. No kidding

My understanding of it from day 1 was that it was to cover costs associated with the clean up.

[dipsydoodle]

16. Mine too

.

[ProSense]

12. Do people just write stuff to spark outrage these days?

•The escrow account is to be used to pay claims adjudicated by the independent claims facility, as well as judgments and settlements, natural resource damage costs, and state and local response costs.

link

[Mimosa]

13. It will take at least a trillion to clean up the Gulf and wetlands

And I fear it won't be done. I fear we have a government which lacks the will.

In truth they appear to be more focused on the War in Afghanistan.

[earth mom]

14. Bloody BP Bastards!!!

:grr:

[dipsydoodle]

17. Administration of the fund

is independant of both the US gov and BP.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. I haven't been so upset since the Red Cross didn't help 9-11 victims.

But also helped other disaster victims in addition to 9-11 victims.

[inna]

18. KR. Tragic but entirely predictable.

[Wilms]

19. k&r n/t

[amborin]

20. unless and until Obama puts BP into receiversh, BP will continue its criminal behavior

[Nikki Stone1]

21. The cleanup alone--if it's even possible--will run into the trillions.

The people along the Gulf Coast will need more than 20 bn. Especially those clean-up workers who are not allowed to wear real protective gear and will die, eventually, from the chemicals.