Lieze Associates, dba Eagle Recycling, of New Jersey, was sentenced recently in federal court in Utica, N.Y., following their guilty plea to conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act and to defrauding the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York and the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division announced today.

Kurt Mix, a former engineer for BP, was arrested yesterday on charges of intentionally destroying evidence requested by federal criminal authorities investigating the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon disaster.

In a settlement announced this afternoon by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, BP has agreed to pay approximately $4.5 billion and plead guilty to criminal charges in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.