Justice

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has notified victims of Enron Corp.’s fraud and 2001 bankruptcy that they have until April 17 to object to a possible resentencing agreement with imprisoned former CEO Jeffrey Skilling. Skilling, 59, has served more than six years of a 24-year prison term after he was convicted by a Houston jury in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in May 2006 on 19 criminal counts for securities fraud, conspiracy, making false statements to auditors and insider trading (see NGI, May 29, 2006). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans reaffirmed the conviction in 2011, finding that the federal government’s evidence of conspiracy was “overwhelming,” but it reiterated, as it had in 2009, that the sentence had been miscalculated by the district court (see NGI, April 11, 2011). The resentencing issue was remanded to the lower court (U.S. v. Skilling, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, No. 04-cr-00025).

Transocean Ltd.’s agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pay $1 billion in civil penalties related to the 2010 Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico has been approved by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans. Transocean had employed nine of the 11 men who were killed when the company’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform was destroyed. The company already has pleaded guilty to a criminal misdemeanor and agreed to pay a separate $400 million fine to DOJ (see Daily GPI, Feb. 15; Jan. 4).

A federal district court judge in Colorado has rejected a proposed settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and two independent producers over alleged rigged bidding in a government lease sale, saying the punishment did not fit the crime.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an objection to BP plc’s $7.8 billion preliminary settlement to resolve court claims following the blowout of the Macondo well in April 2010, saying that it plans to prove “gross negligence or willful misconduct” on the company’s part.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an objection to BP plc’s $7.8 billion preliminary settlement to resolve court claims following the blowout of the Macondo well in April 2010, saying that it plans to prove “gross negligence or willful misconduct” on the company’s part.

A grand jury in the Department of Justice’s Western District of Michigan is “conducting an investigation into possible violations of antitrust laws in connection with the purchase and lease of oil and gas rights,” according to a regulatory filing by Chesapeake Energy Corp. The filing Thursday indicated that Chesapeake received a subpoena in late June from the Midwest Field Office antitrust division.

A Washington, DC-based watchdog group last week called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate whether large natural gas producers, notably Chesapeake Energy Corp. and ConocoPhillips, are conspiring to limit their production to raise the price of natural gas in violation of the antitrust laws. ConocoPhillips said the allegations are “without foundation.”

A Washington, DC-based watchdog group has called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate whether large natural gas producers, notably Chesapeake Energy Corp. and ConocoPhillips, are conspiring to limit their production to raise demand for and increase the price of natural gas in violation of the antitrust laws. ConocoPhillips said the allegations are “without foundation.”

Pennsylvanians are narrowly split on whether the benefits of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) are worth the potential risks, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics (MCAP) at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA.