DOJ Ignores Big Oil Wrongdoing
A
new article analyzes how the Department of Justice has failed to assist various
states in whistleblower cases specifically brought up against large oil
corporations, risking millions of dollars in settlement dollars that could go
to the American taxpayer.
Big
kudos to McClatchy
Newspapers for their investigative piece. As readers of this blog know,
whistleblower suits filed with the federal government against companies that
bilk taxpayers allow for a great percentage of funds to be recovered in
settlement. But the oil company is apparently off limits to the DOJ…
Whistleblower suits are
generally less successful without the Justice Department's intervention, and if
a whistleblower prevails on his or her own, taxpayers get a smaller share of
the damages.
The disclosures come in the
wake of scathing reports from internal watchdogs this week over the Interior
Department's mismanagement of oil leases and are likely to fan criticism that
the Bush administration has ignored allegations that oil companies have cheated
taxpayers out of tens of billions of dollars in fees for the rights to drill on
federal lands.
Who
would figure that this Justice Department would do what it could to protect Big
Oil?
--
Dylan Blaylock
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