Article
BP Broke Civil Racketeering Law in Gulf Oil Spill, Lawyers Say in Lawsuit
BP Plc was accused by lawyers for victims of the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history of breaking civil racketeering laws by engaging in a pattern of violations that led to the disaster. “BP engaged in a pattern of fraudulent conduct directed at regulators from the inception of the Macondo project, continuing through and after the spill and to this day,” Stephen Herman and James Roy, lawyers for hundreds of oil-spill victims, said [...] in a filing in federal court...Herman and Roy are liaison counsel for a committee representing plaintiffs in more than 400 lawsuits over damages for personal and economic injuries...BP is the only company named as a defendant in the spill victims’ master civil RICO complaint...Herman and Roy claim...that BP knowingly broke U.S. environmental laws, skirted federal rules and regulations governing offshore oil and gas extraction, and misrepresented its ability to stop and clean up a deepwater spill...[also refers to Transocean, Halliburton]