It will take a long time to reverse decades of decline and damage to the Gulf ecosystem that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill exacerbated.
Kurt Mix, a former engineer for BP plc, was arrested today on charges of intentionally destroying evidence requested by federal criminal authorities investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
It was the first of what could become many criminal charges to be filed because of the widespread environmental destruction caused by the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP said in a statement, “We will not comment on the Government’s case against former BP employee Kurt Mix and we will continue cooperating in the Department of Justice’s investigation.”
Mix, 50, of Katy, Texas, was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice in a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana and unsealed today two years after the blowout began, which ultimately dumped 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf.
“The Deepwater Horizon Task Force is continuing its investigation into the explosion and will hold accountable those who violated the law in connection with the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.
According to the affidavit in support of a criminal complaint and arrest warrant, on 20 April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig experienced an uncontrolled blowout and related explosions while finishing the Macondo well. The catastrophe killed 11 men on board.
Mix was a drilling and completions project engineer for BP. Following the blowout, Mix worked on internal BP efforts to estimate the amount of oil leaking from the well and was involved in efforts to stop the leak. Those efforts included, among others, so-called Top Kill, the failed BP effort to pump heavy mud into the blown out wellhead to try to stop the oil flow. BP sent numerous notices to Mix requiring him to retain all information concerning Macondo, including his text messages.
In October of 2010, after Mix learned that his electronic files were to be collected by a vendor working for BP’s lawyers, Mix allegedly deleted on his iPhone a text string containing more than 200 text messages with a BP supervisor.
The deleted texts, some of which were recovered forensically, included sensitive internal BP information collected in real-time as the Top Kill operation was occurring, which indicated that Top Kill was failing.
Court documents allege that, among other things, Mix deleted a text he had sent on the evening of 26 May 26 2010, at the end of the first day of Top Kill. In the text, Mix stated, among other things, “Too much flow rate – over 15,000.”
Before Top Kill commenced, Mix and other engineers had concluded internally that Top Kill was unlikely to succeed if the flow rate was greater than 15,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD). At the time, BP’s public estimate of the flow rate was only 5,000 BOPD – three times lower than the minimum flow rate indicated in Mix’s text.
In addition, during August of 2011, after learning that his iPhone was about to be imaged by a vendor working for BP’s outside counsel, Mix allegedly deleted a text string. The string contained more than 100 text messages with a BP contractor with whom Mix had worked on various issues concerning how much oil was flowing from the Macondo well after the blowout. By the time Mix deleted those texts, he had received numerous legal hold notices requiring him to preserve such data and had been communicating with a criminal defense lawyer in connection with the pending grand jury investigation of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
If convicted, Mix faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 as to each count.
The Deepwater Horizon Task Force, based in New Orleans, is supervised by Assistant Attorney General Breuer and led by Deputy Assistant Attorney General John D. Buretta, who serves as the Director of the task force. The task force includes prosecutors from the Criminal Division and the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana and other U.S. Attorney’s Offices. The task Force also includes investigating agents from the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal law enforcement agencies.
The task force’s investigation of this and other matters concerning the Deepwater Horizon disaster is ongoing.
