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 The latest court action by BP seeking to reduce payments from the
spill alleges that part of a group of fishermen hurt by the spill,
clients of lawyer Mikal C. Watts, did not exist.
"We now know that over half of Watts' alleged clients were phantoms:
individuals never represented by Watts, in a number of cases not
even commercial fishermen, and in some instances individuals who are
deceased," BP said in its court filing.
Watts's law office did not provide immediate comment.
BP said about $1 billion has already been paid out from the its
so-called Seafood Compensation Fund, including payments to eight
people represented by Watts.
The company did not say how many people in total have already
received payments from the seafood fund, which has $1.3 billion left
in it.
BP wants the court to halt the payouts, look into the fraud
allegations, and potentially recover some of its money.
The company said Watts filed 648 individual crew claims — less than
two percent of the more than 40,000 claimants he purported to
represent. Of those 648 claims, eight have been found eligible while
17 claims are still pending, the oil company said.
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BP, which still faces potential fines under the Clean Water Act, has
filed numerous lawsuits to curb payouts related to the spill after
taking provisions for $42.4 billion to cover the clean-up,
compensation and fines.
The filing was made in U.S. court for the Eastern District of
Louisiana, where a jury could soon reach a verdict in the trial
former BP engineer Kurt Mix, who allegedly deleted text messages and
voice mails about the estimated size of the spill. He has pleaded
not guilty to charges of obstruction of justice.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Callus
in London; editing by David Gregorio)
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