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Oil Refinery Explosion & Market Manipulation: British Petroleum Settlement (2007)

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• published: 11 Nov 2014
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The US Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed charges against BP Products North America Inc. (subsidiary of BP plc) and several BP traders, alleging they conspired to raise the price of propane by seeking to corner the propane market in 2004.[464][465][466] In 2006, one former trader pleaded guilty.[465] In 2007, BP paid $303 million in restitution and fines as part of an agreement to defer prosecution.[467] BP was charged with cornering and manipulating the price of TET propane in 2003 and 2004. BP paid a $125 million civil monetary penalty to the CFTC, established a compliance and ethics program, and installed a monitor to oversee BP’s trading activities in the commodities markets. BP also paid $53 million BP into a restitution fund for victims, a $100 million criminal penalty, plus $25 million into a consumer fraud fund, as well as other payments.[468] Also in 2007, four other former traders were charged. These charges were dismissed by a US District Court in 2009 on the grounds that the transactions were exempt under the Commodities Exchange Act because they didn't occur in a marketplace but were negotiated contracts among sophisticated companies. The dismissal was upheld by the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in 2011.[466] In November 2010, US regulators FERC and CFTC began an investigation of BP for allegedly manipulating the gas market. The investigation relates to trading activity that occurred in October and November 2008.[469][470] At that time, CFTC Enforcement staff provided BP with a notice of intent to recommend charges of attempted market manipulation in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act. BP denied that it engaged in "any inappropriate or unlawful activity." In July 2011, the FERC staff issued a "Notice of Alleged Violations" saying it had preliminarily determined that several BP entities fraudulently traded physical natural gas in the Houston Ship Channel and Katy markets and trading points to increase the value of their financial swing spread positions.[471] BP's London offices, along with those of Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil, were raided in May 2013 by regulators from the European Commission, beginning an investigation into allegations the companies reported distorted prices to the price reporting agency Platts, in order to "manipulate the published prices" for several oil and biofuel products. The EC is probing allegations the companies colluded to rig prices for more than a decade. BP plc,[5][6] sometimes referred to by its former name British Petroleum, is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is the sixth-largest energy company by market capitalization,[7] the fifth-largest company in the world measured by 2012 revenues, and the sixth-largest oil and gas company measured by 2012 production.[8][9] It is one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".[10] BP is vertically integrated and operates in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has renewable energy activities in biofuels and wind power. As of December 2013, BP has operations in approximately 80 countries,[4] produces around 3.2 million barrels per day (510,000 m3/d) of oil equivalent,[1] has total proved reserves of 17.9 billion barrels (2.85×109 m3) of oil equivalent,[11] and has around 17,800 service stations.[12][13] Its largest division is BP America in the United States. In Russia BP owns a 19.75% stake in Rosneft, the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas company by hydrocarbon reserves and production. BP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index; it had a market capitalisation of £85.2 billion as of April 2013, the fourth-largest of any company listed on the exchange.[14] It has secondary listings on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. BP's origins date back to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1908, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954 British Petroleum.[15][16] In 1959, the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska and in 1965 it was the first company to strike oil in the North Sea. British Petroleum acquired majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978. Formerly majority state-owned, the British government privatised the company in stages between 1979 and 1987. British Petroleum merged with Amoco in 1998, becoming BP Amoco plc, and acquired ARCO and Burmah Castrol in 2000, becoming BP plc in 2001. From 2003 to 2013, BP was a partner in the TNK-BP joint venture in Russia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP