Targets in BP settlement inquiry assail findings

WaPo ^ | 12-27-13 | AP

[FlJoePa]

NEW ORLEANS — Nearly six months after a federal judge appointed former FBI director Louis Freeh to investigate alleged misconduct inside the settlement program for compensating victims of BP’s 2010 Gulf oil spill, the targets of his inquiry are questioning his independence and trying to rebut his findings.

Lionel “Tiger” Sutton III, a lawyer whose resignation from the staff of claims administrator Patrick Juneau spawned the investigation, urged U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier last week to throw out a scathing report that Freeh issued in September. The report concluded that top members of Juneau’s staff, including Sutton, engaged in conduct that was improper, unethical and possibly criminal.

Sutton’s lawyer, Michael Walsh, argued in a Dec. 18 court filing that Freeh doesn’t have any evidence that his client broke any laws or had a conflict of interest during his work on the settlement.

“When one is able to see through the innuendo, out of context statements, factual mistakes, incorrect assumptions, faulty legal analysis, lack of evidence, self-dealing and fantasies that make up the Freeh report, the conclusion is clear. At no time did Sutton commit any crime or knowingly violate the written terms of his Employment Agreement or the Settlement Agreement,” Walsh wrote.

Freeh’s report also accused two private attorneys, Glen Lerner and Jon Andry, of using Sutton’s position in the settlement program to benefit their clients’ claims. In return, the report said, Sutton received more than $40,000 in fees for referring a claimant to their law firm before he joined Juneau’s staff.

Lerner’s lawyers said there is no evidence that Sutton tried to provide any “improper advantage” to any of the clients that Lerner and Andry represented.

[FlJoePa]

“Mr. Freeh made no effort at objectivity and his report was obviously result driven,” Pierson wrote.

Reitano’s attorney, Mary Olive Pierson, argued in a Dec. 16 court filing that Freeh’s investigation methods are “unexplained and incomplete.”

Louis the Liar don't need no objectivity. Just write a check and get the results you want.

[PGR88]

$20 billion - a random amount of money simply demanded by Obama and the EPA, which BP paid for PR purposes - handed out quickly by an opaque process by political appointees

What could possibly go wrong????