BP should pay at least $1 billion in criminal penalties for the deadly Texas City refinery explosion instead of the $50 million agreed to in a plea bargain with the U.S. government, a lawyer for blast victims said Tuesday.
''We all are taught to believe that crime does not pay, but that won't be the case if this plea bargain goes through," Corpus Christi plaintiff lawyer David Perry said in a telephone interview before a news conference in Corpus Christi on Tuesday.
He argued that BP neglected repairs at the Texas City plant for six years and made more than $1 billion profit from the plant in that time, so the corporation should pay at least $1 billion in fines.
"When they have killed 15 people and injured so many others and done so consciously, they deserve a far more severe penalty," he said. His court filing called the plea bargain ''shockingly lenient."
London-based BP has agreed to plead guilty to a felony Clean Air Act violation and pay $50 million to settle allegations related to the Texas City explosion.
The fine would go to the U.S. Treasury and not be used for restitution to the victims. Perry represents 12 clients who were injured in the March 2005 plant explosion or lost family members.
His federal court motions filed Tuesday asked that the plea be rejected and that U.S. District Judge Gray Miller remove himself from the case because his former law firm, Fulbright & Jaworski, helped defend BP in lawsuits over the explosion.
Neither the judge nor Fulbright & Jaworski had comments on that request. Judges regularly remove themselves from cases when they find potential conflicts or an appearance of conflicts.
Perry said he also wants the court to hear from his clients before accepting the plea bargain.
Motions call for rejection of plea, removal of judge
A hearing on the settlement is scheduled for next Tuesday.
A 2004 law allows for federal crime victims to be heard at sentencing and plea hearings.
Houston-based U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle said his office has made efforts to invite victims of the explosion to be present at the hearing.
''However," he said in a statement issued by his office, ''we respectfully disagree with the objections to the terms of the plea agreement and the qualification of the court and will respond accordingly at the appropriate time."
BP spokesman Neil Chapman declined to comment.
Perry's motion included an e-mail and other documents that he argued back his claim that the company knowingly put profit over safety for years. ''All I can say is the amount of fine under the law and under sentencing guidelines should at least match the profit," he said, suggesting the fine possibly should be double the profit.
A two-year probe by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board concluded that deep budget cuts laid the foundation for the disaster. BP has disputed any such link.
But the company admitted in its plea agreement that on the morning of the blast, several procedures required under the Clean Air Act either had not been established or were ignored.
Perry objects that the government and BP have asked that the court waive the pre-sentencing investigation that is typical in federal criminal cases. That usually involves a background check on the defendants, and Perry said BP has a history of problems that the court will not hear about if the report is waived.
BP and the government disclosed two agreements in unrelated cases the same week they announced the $50 million plea in the blast case.
BP will pay $303.5 million and agree to a deferred prosecution agreement to settle separate allegations that it manipulated the price of propane three years ago.
And the company is to plead guilty to felony environmental crimes and pay $20 million in fines and restitution related to 2006 leaks in oil pipelines feeding the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in Prudhoe Bay.
That case stems from two spills from corroded pipelines, including a 267,000-gallon leak that was the largest oil spill ever on Alaska's North Slope.
BP also has faced hundreds of lawsuits arising from the 2005 plant disaster, many already settled. The company set aside $1.6 billion for those payments and resolution of pending cases.
The March 2005 blast occurred when a tower in a unit that boosts octane in gasoline overfilled with hydrocarbons that flowed to an aging vent stack.
The stack spewed flammable liquid, which fell to the ground and formed a vapor cloud that ignited.
The unit has been closed since the explosion.
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