简体中文
British oil giant BP said Monday it has uncovered new allegations of fraud in the settlement program that has given billions of U.S. dollars to Gulf Coast businesses and residents after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, U.S. media reported.
BP cited the allegations in a federal court filing in the city of New Orleans Monday. The company also renewed its request for a judge to temporarily suspend settlement payments because of the fraud issues, local media NOLA reported.
BP has made similar allegations before. It launched a hotline last month for people to report allegations of fraud relating to its multi-billion-dollar settlement with Gulf Coast businesses and residents that lost money in the Gulf oil spill.
BP said it has spent 14 billion dollars on response and cleanup to help restore the environment so far. The company has also paid more than 300,000 claims totaling over 11 billion dollars to help restore the Gulf economy.
The company initially estimated the settlement deal would cost about 7.8 billion dollars. That grew to 8.5 billion dollars. In March, BP said in a regulatory filing that "no reliable estimate can be made of any business economic loss claims."
The Deepwater Horizon was drilling BP's Macondo oil well in the Gulf on April 20, 2010, when it caught fire and exploded, killing 11 workers and triggering one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history.
