Posted by JM Ashby
Out of 91,000 claims for final settlement received by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, only one has received an actual settlement check in the mail. Other claimants have been strung along with a stream of stopgap payments, but only one business has received a final settlement. Who is this one business? A BP business partner, of course!
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. – BP's compensation fund for Gulf oil spill victims has issued a final settlement payment to just one of the thousands of people and businesses waiting for checks, records show, and that $10 million payout went to a company after the oil giant intervened on its behalf.
BP won't identify the business, citing confidentiality, but acknowledges it lobbied for the settlement. The amount far exceeds smaller stopgap payments that some individuals and businesses have received while they wait for their own final settlements.
...As of this weekend, roughly 91,000 people and businesses had filed for final settlements, but the fund's administrator, Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, has said those checks won't start rolling out until February at the earliest. Thousands of people have received some money to tide them over until a final settlement amount is offered, but only one business listed as paid on the facility's website has so far received a check.
Feinberg's law firm is being paid $850,000 per month by BP to administer the Claims Facility, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that the facility and BP got together to expedite the claims process for a BP business partner.
Does Senator Joe Barton still wish to apologize to BP for being subjected to a "shakedown?" Of course he does.