Group items tagged

Justice Department attorneys rested their case Wednesday in the federal civil trial of BP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., as the firms and the government continued to argue over how much oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico in the 87 days following the April 20, 2010, blowout of BP's Macondo well. Justice attorneys finished questioning experts who support the government's contention that the oil spill resulted in the release of at least 4.2 million barrels of oil into Gulf. BP and Anadarko have maintained that only 2.45 million barrels of oil were released, and are set to begin making their case Thursday. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is presiding over the trial without a jury, listening attentively and interrupting at times with his own questions about the often mind-numbing testimony describing the physics and mathematical equations that experts from both sides have used to estimate the flow of oil. BP's estimate would result in maximum fines of $2.7 billion, billion, if Barbier decides the company and its drilling partners acted with simple negligence, or $10.5 billion if the companies committed gross negligence in their actions during the drilling of the well and in stemming the flow of oil after the blowout. Details: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1530229-second-phase-of-bp-oil-spill-trial Related Articles: http://www.bpholdingsmngt.de/

Justice Department attorneys rested their case Wednesday in the federal civil trial of BP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., as the firms and the government continued to argue over how much oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico in the 87 days following the April 20, 2010, blowout of BP's Macondo well. Justice attorneys finished questioning experts who support the government's contention that the oil spill resulted in the release of at least 4.2 million barrels of oil into Gulf. BP and Anadarko have maintained that only 2.45 million barrels of oil were released, and are set to begin making their case Thursday. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is presiding over the trial without a jury, listening attentively and interrupting at times with his own questions about the often mind-numbing testimony describing the physics and mathematical equations that experts from both sides have used to estimate the flow of oil. BP's estimate would result in maximum fines of $2.7 billion, billion, if Barbier decides the company and its drilling partners acted with simple negligence, or $10.5 billion if the companies committed gross negligence in their actions during the drilling of the well and in stemming the flow of oil after the blowout. If the government's estimates are adopted, the maximum fines for simple negligence could rise to $4.6 billion, or $18 billion for gross negligence. Testimony so far, and the questioning of the government witnesses by BP attorneys, indicated Barbier will be relying largely on educated guesses in determining how much oil was released. Mohan Kelkar, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Tulsa, in Oklahoma, testified that Kelkar concluded that between 4.5 million and 5.5 million barrels of oil were spilled by the time the well was finally shut down on July 15, 2010. Kelkar used information about the physical size of the Macondo oil reservoir, BP's pre-drilling estimates of the amount of oil in the reservoir, and pressure readings in

http://jazonmert.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/the-irs-wants-to-shrink-payments-to-tax-fraud-whistleblowers-bp-spain-holdings-madrid-articles/ FORTUNE -- Hoping to win millions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service for exposing tax fraud? It's going to get even tougher -- and some powerful people in Washington are not amused. In January, Sen. Charles Grassley, the 79-year-old Iowa Republican, chastised acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller over his recent proposal to restrict the agency's whistleblower program, already an object of criticism since its creation in 2006. The proposed curbs, Grassley wrote in a letter to Miller, showed one thing: that the IRS and its boss, the Treasury Department, "view whistleblowers with hostility." What exactly is at issue? The current whistleblower rules say a tipster can collect a reward of 15%-30% of proceeds brought in as a direct result of a tip. The dirt has to involve tax evasion of at least $2 million or tax fraud by an individual making at least $200,000 a year. Miller's proposed restrictions will likely shrink payouts. Among the curbs: making it nearly impossible for whistleblowers to share in rewards stemming from a company's inflation of losses, and excluding from rewards any money brought in from so-called Fbar fines. These draconian fines, levied on offshore tax evaders, are often dozens and even hundreds of times the amount of actual back-tax an evader must pay. MORE: 3 things Jamie Dimon might have meant when he said he was 'richer than you' But here's the rub in this unusual political fight: Even in its current structure, very few whistleblower claims get paid, thanks to bureaucratic foot-dragging at the IRS, according to lawyers representing whistleblowers. Despite receiving more than 1,960 claims since 2006, the IRS made its first payment only in 2011. In total, it has paid only three claims. The biggest: $104 million to convicted felon Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS AG private banker who kick-started the

bp holdings Sweden The incidence of financial fraud in the United States is on the rise. Americans submitted more than 1.5 million complaints about financial and other fraud in 2011 - a 62 percent increase in just three years - according to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) annual "Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book" the most comprehensive database of U.S. fraud trends (see Figure 1). Joe Borg, head of Alabama's securities commission and a leader among state securities regulators, agreed there is a proliferation of fraud, and he largely blames the Internet. His agency had an unprecedented 31-case backlog of criminal trials involving financial fraud in September 2011. "It's not unusual to have 20-25 convictions a year, but when we have 31 backed up - and we're trying them as fast as we can - the trend is up," he said. Borg ticks off the reasons: "Downturn in the economy. Fear among the public. The idea that the government can't protect them anymore. Medical costs are going through the roof. Those are fears. The Internet is the vehicle. The Internet's a big, big factor." Neil Power, supervisor of the FBI's Economic Crimes Squad in Boston, said the public is not fully aware of how pervasive fraud is, because only the most prominent cases, such as Bernard L. Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme, are covered by the media. The vast majority of cases fly under the public's radar. "There is a substantial amount of fraud being addressed that's not being covered," he said. Many more scammers are never caught by a regulatory system rife with staff shortages and inadequate resources. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) admitted in April 2010 that it has never examined some 3,000 registered U.S. investment advisers, Investment News reported. In Canada, only a small percentage of total fraud is reported to law enforcement: one in three Canadians has been targeted by a scammer, yet only 14 perc

Nice website over here! I just wanna thank you for that.

bp holdings article code 85258080768, Feeding Frenzy fraud watch In the months after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded 300 miles off Florida's coast in April 2010, hotel and restaurant owners, fishermen and shopkeepers kept a grim vigil, waiting to see whether the millions of gallons of spilled oil would taint the state's beaches and harm its seafood. From a distance, thousands of others watched too, the Canadian, European and American tourists and business travelers who had hoped to rent the Tampa Bay, Sarasota or Naples hotel rooms, dine at the restaurants, shop at the stores, and meet in the conference halls along the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, many traveled elsewhere. Although no flocks of oil-soaked pelicans washed up on Florida's shores, and the 200 million spilled gallons did not blacken beaches as so many feared, the coastal communities and their businesses were nonetheless damaged by the BP oil spill, through economic losses - the visitors who never came. That is the contention of cities and counties, and thousands of business owners whose revenues fell in the months following the disaster. A number of Florida resorts and other businesses that sought early compensation for their losses - the plunge in expected revenue - found their requests denied, although London-based BP had set up a $20 billion fund for victims. But the firms couldn't prove their revenue declines were related to the spill. In December, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans gave final approval to a $7.8 billion partial class-action settlement providing for economic and property damages from the spill, including those in Florida. BP separately agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties and pleaded guilty to felony misconduct in the disaster, which cost 11 lives. Barbier now is presiding over a trial to determine whether BP was grossly negligent, with another $17 billion in potential penalties at stake. A new, streamlined process recognizes losses farther from the ex