Article
Gulf oil spill settlement claims administrator says BP's allegations of fraud are 'spurious,' 'unfounded' [USA]
Patrick Juneau, court-appointed administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill claims settlement program...[responded] to BP allegations that his payment program is rife with fraud, charging the company with making "spurious allegations of breaches of duty" and "broad, unfounded criticisms..." Juneau was responding to an Aug. 5 BP motion asking U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to suspend payments in the claims program -- which has averaged payouts of $100 million a week -- until an independent investigation of fraud allegations involving the program...is completed…[I]n their filing, Juneau's attorneys insist that BP has gone too far in its allegations that the claims payment program is improperly run…Juneau said his own staffers and a company hired by his office to investigate fraud has found no evidence of what BP is calling widespread fraud in the payment of subsistence fishing claims…