The Price of Doing it YOUR way.....Embarassment, Destruction, & Loss...more to follow!!! :-)

BP Plc (BP/) and plaintiffs suing over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill are discussing a $14 billion accord that would be funded with money originally set aside by the company for out-of-court settlements, according to three people familiar with the talks.

BP would agree to close down its $20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility and shift the remaining $14 billion to plaintiffs who contend the spill harmed their businesses and properties, the people said. BP set up the fund in August 2010 to allow spill victims to receive compensation more quickly than they would by pursuing lawsuits. The fund has paid out about $6 billion so far, according to its website.

The April 2010 Macondo well blowout sent more than 4 million barrels of oil spewing into the gulf over 85 days, making it the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. The disaster spawned hundreds of lawsuits against BP and its partners, including Transocean Ltd. (RIG), the Vernier, Switzerland- based owner and operator of the drilling rig, and Houston-based Halliburton Co. (HAL), which provided cementing services on the facility. The suits include pollution claims by the federal and state governments, and consolidated cases brought by thousands of commercial fishermen, seafood processors and property owners.

“They could be about 90 or 95 percent done and now they have to go that last yard, which is always the toughest,” Carl Tobias, who teaches mass-tort law at the University of Richmond in Virginia, said of the proposed accord. “There could be an awful lot of money that is still in play or provisions that are hard to swallow for one side or the other.”

Chevron criminal charges for oil spill

A Brazilian prosecutor plans to file criminal charges against Chevron Corp and some of its local managers within weeks, adding the threat of prison sentences to an $11 billion civil lawsuit as punishment for a November offshore oil spill.

The filing in federal court in Campos, Brazil, will likely include a request for criminal indictment of George Buck, chief executive of Chevron's Brazil unit, as well as other staff, three Brazilian government officials involved in the case told Reuters.

Transocean Ltd, whose rig was used in the operation, and some of its employees in Brazil are also expected to be charged, according to the officials, who requested anonymity because the case has not been presented to a judge. It is up to a judge to determine whether to accept the charges and proceed with indictments.

IFRS: Who Commits Financial Fraud and Why? (The why is simple = self interest)

There are three groups of business people who commit financial statement frauds. They range from senior management (CEO and CFO); mid- and lower-level management; and organizational criminals.

CEOs and CFOs commit accounting frauds to conceal true business performance, to preserve personal status and control and to maintain personal income and wealth. Mid- and lower-level employees falsify financial statements related to their area of responsibility (subsidiary, division or other unit) to conceal poor performance and/or to earn performance-based bonuses. Organizational criminals falsify financial statements to obtain loans or to inflate a stock they plan to sell in a "pump-and-dump" scheme.


Methods of financial statement schemes range from fictitious or fabricated revenues; altering the times at which revenues are recognized; improper asset valuations and reporting; concealing liabilities and expenses; and improper financial statement disclosures.

$18 billion damage award upheld against Chevron

A court of appeals in Ecuador has upheld an $18 billion damage award issued by a lower court in February against U.S. oil giant Chevron for contamination of the Ecuadorian rainforest by its subsidiary Texaco Petroleum.



After reviewing the 220,000 page trial record for 11 months, the three-member appellate panel in the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbios in Lago Agrio ruled Tuesday that laboratory results confirm that pollution existed at Texaco's former well sites hundreds of times higher than permissible norms in Ecuador.


Chevron purchased Texaco in 2001, so the plaintiffs consider Chevron responsible for Texaco's liabilities incurred prior to the purchase.


"This decision confirms what we have been saying for years," said Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorian lawyer. "Chevron is guilty of extraordinary greed and criminal misconduct that has created a humanitarian crisis in Ecuador that puts thousands of people at risk."


The 30,000 plaintiffs, who are Ecuadorian indigenous people and farmers, said in a statement Tuesday, "The decision by an independent appellate court is yet further confirmation of Chevron's extraordinary greed and criminal misconduct in Ecuador. The decision is based on overwhelming scientific evidence presented at trial that proved Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste that poisoned the water supply of the Amazon rainforest, decimating indigenous groups and causing an outbreak of cancers and other diseases that continue to threaten thousands of innocent lives."

The decision is the largest environmental award in history and is the latest development in an 18-year legal battle to win cleanup of contaminated sites, clean drinking water, and health care.


Texaco is alleged to have caused hundreds of oil spills in Ecuador, many of which were "remediated" by setting them on fire and to have poured sludge from the oil waste pits along dirt roads.


"The judges found ample scientific basis to uphold the damages award, including devastating evidence provided the court by Chevron's own team of technical experts that proved levels of pollution hundreds of times higher than permitted by law," said Karen Hinton the Washington, DC-based spokesperson for the Amazon Defense Coalition, the plaintiffs' organization.