The federal criminal investigation into the Gulf oil spill will focus on BP, Transocean and Halliburton — and their connections to federal regulators.
The Washington Post reports today that investigators known as the “BP Squad,” including people from the EPA, the Coast Guard, the FBI and other agencies, are assembling in New Orleans. They’ll investigate not only the oil companies, but the role the former Minerals Management Service may have played in the disaster.
One emerging line of inquiry, sources said, is whether inspectors for the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency charged with regulating the oil industry — which is itself investigating the disaster — went easy on the companies in exchange for money or other inducements. A series of federal audits has documented the MMS’s close relationship with the industry.
“The net is wide,” said one federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
WaPo also reports that the investigation will look into whether the companies lied to regulators or falsified test reports for equipment like the failed blowout preventer.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced the investigation in June. It’s one of several investigations, including the one being performed by a presidential commission and led, in part, by MMS (or, as it’s now known, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management).
Two BP managers have been named specifically in the probe: Robert Kaluza, who oversaw operations on the Deepwater Horizon, and Patrick O’Bryan, BP’s vice president in charge of drilling and completions. Kaluza has declined to testify before the presidential commission, citing his Fifth Amendment rights.
Gulf states are conducting their own investigations. BP announced yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is also informally investigating.
