BP to pay largest ever settlement in Deepwater Horizon tragedy
Public Citizen calls it “a slap on the wrist”
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.
The settlement total, to be paid out over five years, includes more than $1.25 billion in criminal fines -- the largest such penalty ever.