Posted on 09/20/2013 7:15:07 PM PDT by opentalk
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Halliburton Co pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges of destroying evidence, stemming from its role in the 2010 BP oil disaster that killed 11 men and sent more than 4 million barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.
A former Halliburton cementing technology director in Texas also was charged on Thursday with destroying evidence.
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo in New Orleans accepted the company's guilty plea from Halliburton legal counsel Marc Mukasey, imposed the agreed-upon maximum fine of $200,000 and placed the company on a three-year probation term.
Mukasey did not make a statement on the company's behalf.
The Macondo disaster, the worst-ever offshore oil spill in U.S. history, so far has cost BP about $42.4 billion in charges on its balance sheet from payouts, cleanup and restoration costs and ongoing litigation.
The plea deal with Halliburton was first announced by the company and the U.S. Department of Justice on July 25. The U.S. Justice Department revealed the single count of destroying evidence filed against the former Halliburton manager, Anthony Badalamenti, of Katy, Texas, on Thursday.
In its plea, Halliburton admitted to the misdemeanor charge of "intentionally causing damage without authorization to a protected computer."
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.reuters.com ...
Sickening.
Hard to defend them and Cheney with this crap.
P.S. The Cheney thing was a joke.
But seriously, hard to defend them.
After a wrist-slapping like that, I bet it took company execs both hands to hold onto the champagne.
$200,000 fine is pretty much an acknowledgement that Halliburton did little or nothing wrong.
Just a transaction fee. Thank you so much for your purchase, and do come visit the justice system again.
It was a judge that was obligated to make headlines for the RATS trying to corral their shrinking base.
“Hard to defend them and Cheney with this crap.”
Spare us your know nothing bullshit. What did Cheney have to do with this? He’s years removed from Haliburton. The company is just a lightning rod for left wing idiots to begin with.
and what was the evidence? of what? what did they supposedly do?
How about the evidence that was destroyed by the government. There was evidence they were forced to use a different type of sand by the EPA which was much less dense and more dangerous when the thing blew.
How about releasing the studies showing more fish populations than before the spill? Do the fish actually like the minerals in the oil? Oh yeah, hammer Haliburton.
Pray America Wakes Up
The plea deal was no doubt a financial decision alone.
If the firm was associated with Al Gore for example, the headline would read:
Algorian Corp Settles Gulf spill documents suit.
Here you have Obama, Holder and an Obama appointed federal judge attempting to destroy Halliburton for deleting a few computer files.
Halliburton should stand strong against the Feds interfering in their business.
Yes! Halliburton has long been a company on the side of real Patriots. No wonder leftists are trying to destroy this great company with roots deep in the Southwest, founded Oklahoma and headquartered here in Texas.
You must have missed my following post. I forget trigger finger Freepers sometimes don’t get the sarcasm without an actual tag.
IIRC, they moved their overall headquarters to Dubai some years ago (pre-Obama).
Cheney was long out of there and had served two terms as VP when this happened.
Probably.
I'd be satisfied if they just closed their checkbook for video pre-rolls about their environmental sensitivity and what not.
Even $1 is excessive for that. It is an admission of guilt.
I know. It was sarcasm on Cheney.
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