Kerr-McGee Is Found Liable in Lawsuit Over Oil Royalties

uscitizen

uscitizen

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Kerr-McGee Is Found Liable in Lawsuit Over Oil Royalties
By Edmund L. Andrews
The New York Times

Wednesday 24 January 2007

Washington - A federal jury in Denver agreed Tuesday with a former top auditor for the Interior Department that the Kerr-McGee Corporation had cheated the government out of millions of dollars in royalties on oil it produced in publicly owned coastal waters.

The decision, reached by the jury after deliberations of about four hours, is a vindication for the auditor, Bobby L. Maxwell. He became a whistle-blower and sued Kerr-McGee as a private citizen after top officials at the Interior Department ordered him to drop his audit findings.

It is also a potentially big embarrassment for the Interior Department, which dismissed Mr. Maxwell in a "reorganization" and which had insisted that his case against Kerr-McGee had no merit.

The Minerals Management Service, an Interior Department agency that collects more than $10 billion a year in royalties on oil and gas pumped on federal territory, is now the subject of numerous investigations by Congress, as well as its own inspector general, over its enforcement of royalty rules.

Interior Department officials did not return e-mail messages on Tuesday night requesting comment on the decision, the word of which arrived shortly before 7 p.m. in Washington.

In addition to Mr. Maxwell, three other auditors in the royalty program have filed their own lawsuits as whistle-blowers against more than a dozen other oil companies. Like Mr. Maxwell, those auditors have said the Interior Department blocked them from pursuing what they viewed as valid cases of underpayments.

The jury in Mr. Maxwell's case decided that Kerr-McGee had underpaid the government $7.5 million, accepting Mr. Maxwell's estimates.

Under the False Claims Act, a law that was intended to encourage whistle-blowers, Kerr-McGee could be forced to pay more than $30 million - double or triple the original amount it owed, as well as penalties of up to $11,000 for each of 1,200 false statements that the company is accused of making in its royalty reports to the government.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012407S.shtml
 
While the actual amount of money owed by Kerr-McGee is minimal, I must admit that I'm delighted. This is one of the departments that Bush has tried to emasculate by subterfuge and sabotage.

No bureaucratic agency can function effectively if the individuals at the top level do not believe in its core mission or are incompetent.
 
The ore rocks that get turned over the bigger the stench. I think it will prove to be an exciting next couple of years. Might even seal the neo types fates for the next 12 yrs or so.
 
Now shareholders can sue that their actions were not in the best interest of the health of the corporation without a difficult time with evidence and proof. It is all laid bare already in this lawsuit.
 
The decision, reached by the jury after deliberations of about four hours, is a vindication for the auditor, Bobby L. Maxwell. He became a whistle-blower and sued Kerr-McGee as a private citizen after top officials at the Interior Department ordered him to drop his audit findings.

It is also a potentially big embarrassment for the Interior Department, which dismissed Mr. Maxwell in a "reorganization" and which had insisted that his case against Kerr-McGee had no merit.
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now tell me this...WHO WAS THE CORRUPT ones in this interior dept that ORDERED HIM to drop it?

jimminnee cricket, TOTAL CORRUPTION within our government!

this should be pursued further, and jailtime should be at hand....imo!
 
It might go farther. I hope so.


Damo, this is a fraud to the government kind of thing, not a shareholder issue. err well the fraud does create a shareholder issue, and I hope those guilty go to jail.
 
Hmm in another 2 years, well Bush might be handing a lot of "get out of jail free" cards out as he exits.
 
uscitizen said:
It might go farther. I hope so.


Damo, this is a fraud to the government kind of thing, not a shareholder issue. err well the fraud does create a shareholder issue, and I hope those guilty go to jail.
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Yes, fraud is a shareholder issue...

It is another way to use the power of ownership. If the companies are running the nation with backsheesh the only way to run the nation is if people insist on their rights as shareholders.
 
If they break laws I prefer to the the perps do time and pay big fines.
Are you trying to say that lawbreakers should be punished/prosecuted by the shareholders instead of the "Justice" system ?
 
Nope. Just as OJ could have both lost in criminal court then later in litigation, of course we know he won in the criminal before losing in litigation, so can the same be for this.

Shareholders forcing companies to do what they want will be the way to run the nation, if we continue to allow our politicians to be bought and paid for by them.
 
The shareholders in this case, MADE MONEY off of the company's tax payer theft though, no?

would they really force ethics upon their company heads when it "made them money?" I would hope so, but there is that "something" called GREED...... :(

Or am I just misunderstanding?

Care
 
Care4all said:
The shareholders in this case, MADE MONEY off of the company's tax payer theft though, no?

would they really force ethics upon their company heads when it "made them money?" I would hope so, but there is that "something" called GREED...... :(

Or am I just misunderstanding?

Care
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However, the law doesn't say that the short-term money making is where their responsibility lies. The shareholders are damaged in the long-term. And law specifically states that their actions must work for the health of the company, fraudulent reporting is not to the benefit of the company. Therefore they have a claim that can remove any officers that were there and knew about the fraud, replace them. They can also change bonuses, etc.

They can do this two ways, those with voting shares can vote, those without have only one recourse, litigation.

(And Care, this is a carryover from another thread wherein I insist that the best way to change how companies, and indirectly how the nation, is run is by using shareholder rights to change the action of the companies who buy and pay for our representatives).
 
yes, I agree Damo, it is very important to get shareholders more involved in the stock itself, but unfortunately, the only shareholders paying attention are the ones that benefit the most from the company's crokkedness, like the CEO's themselves in many cases, as they are heavy stock holders.

I am very guilty of this myself. I have owned stocks that have sent me the scoop for shareholder meetings, a booklet infact of all that is going on, but I never had the time to open it up and I never even sent my form back for a proxy vote etc.... this was when I was younger, in my late 30's....when my career took more than 60 hours a week....let alone my "wifely" duties....

In addition to this, most of "middle america" that is invested in the stock market are invested in different mutual funds or stocks that someone else is investing in for them.... like t rowe price.... and most of this investment is in mostly 401k plans....

for the first decade I was in my 401k, I made no changes other than forced ones....toooooo busy and cared too little about money at the time to spend time on it, i admit! I just wanted to "survive" early on and felt I was forced by my company to put in to the 401k through a boss/peer preasure thingy going on....lol! Boy am I glad that peer preasure worked and I decided to put in to it, but it only made things harder on me at the time to keep my head above water!

I guess what I am trying to say is that, I AGREE WITH YOU on the shareholder thing....getting them MORE involved with the "business they own stock in" and how ethical it is or how it is run....

but more than likely, it will still be in the hands of a few knowledgable, and in the boys/girls club, shareholders.
 
Care4all said:
yes, I agree Damo, it is very important to get shareholders more involved in the stock itself, but unfortunately, the only shareholders paying attention are the ones that benefit the most from the company's crokkedness, like the CEO's themselves in many cases, as they are heavy stock holders.

I am very guilty of this myself. I have owned stocks that have sent me the scoop for shareholder meetings, a booklet infact of all that is going on, but I never had the time to open it up and I never even sent my form back for a proxy vote etc.... this was when I was younger, in my late 30's....when my career took more than 60 hours a week....let alone my "wifely" duties....

In addition to this, most of "middle america" that is invested in the stock market are invested in different mutual funds or stocks that someone else is investing in for them.... like t rowe price.... and most of this investment is in mostly 401k plans....

for the first decade I was in my 401k, I made no changes other than forced ones....toooooo busy and cared too little about money at the time to spend time on it, i admit! I just wanted to "survive" early on and felt I was forced by my company to put in to the 401k through a boss/peer preasure thingy going on....lol! Boy am I glad that peer preasure worked and I decided to put in to it, but it only made things harder on me at the time to keep my head above water!

I guess what I am trying to say is that, I AGREE WITH YOU on the shareholder thing....getting them MORE involved with the "business they own stock in" and how ethical it is or how it is run....

but more than likely, it will still be in the hands of a few knowledgable, and in the boys/girls club, shareholders.
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Which I believe is unfortunate. One voice in a hurricane isn't going to stop much. Nor is government intervention by politicians that are bought by those self-same people. They end up making "reform" that gives a back-door to the backsheesh, makes it easier for them to hide the problem and then pretend that it made a difference...
 
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