BP seeks to stop payouts to claims administrator | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper

BP seeks to stop payouts to claims administrator | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper:

NEW ORLEANS—BP is balking at paying more than US$130 million in fees for the court-supervised administrator of its multibillion dollar settlement with Gulf Coast businesses and residents after the 2010 Gulf oil spill. A federal magistrate has scheduled a hearing today for BP to show why it shouldn’t be ordered to fund claims administrator Patrick Juneau’s proposed third-quarter budget.
In a letter Monday, a BP claims official said the company cannot determine if Juneau’s budget request is reasonable without more documentation. The official also claimed the settlement programme has been plagued by poor productivity and excessive costs. Separately, BP has asked a judge to suspend all settlement payments while former FBI Director Louis Freeh investigates alleged fraud in the programme.
BP Plc said Monday it has discovered new evidence of fraud and conflicts of interest in the programme that is paying billions of dollars to businesses and residents who claimed they were harmed by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The oil company made the disclosure in a filing with the US District Court in New Orleans as part of a renewed effort to suspend the payouts until Freeh, the court-appointed monitor, finishes investigating the payout programme.
BP said it learned within the last week that two lawyers reviewing appeals of disputed claims were partners at law firms representing claimants before the Court Supervised Settlement Programme (CSSP), and thus had apparent conflicts of interest. It also said it learned through its fraud hotline of allegations that a worker at a Mobile, Alabama spill claims centre helped people submit fraudulent claims in exchange for a share of the settlement amounts. BP said the CSSP suspended two employees in connection with this matter.
“BP should not have to face the substantial risk of irreparable harm from improper payments,” the company said. Temporarily halting payments until Freeh finishes his report is “modest relief” that will at most “slightly delay” payouts, which have been running at US$93 million a week, it added. Juneau, the Louisiana lawyer who administers the payout programme, previously announced an internal probe of allegations that a former worker in the payout programme referred claimants to lawyers in exchange for a share of payments

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