Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Black Mark for BP in California

SACRAMENTO (CN) - BP will pay California $7.9 million to settle complaints that it claimed payments from the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund with false or misleading statements, and 90 of its cleanup sites are permanently disqualified from such payments, the state said Thursday.

The State Water Resources Control Board said that disqualifying the 90 sites could save the state up to $135 million. In addition, BP's 153 other cleanup sites, which are eligible for reimbursements, will each have a $25,400 offset levied against, reducing its claims by $3.9 million.

BP North America agreed to the deal in a False Claims Act settlement with the State Water Board, the state attorney general and a third-party plaintiff.

The State Water Board and the Attorney General's Office found that BPNA failed to report reimbursements it received from insurance companies for the same sites for which it claimed reimbursements from the fund - which is prohibited.

BP will pay the third-party plaintiff $1.38 million and another $250,000 in attorney fees.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...