Friday, October 26, 2007

The Pound Stops Well Below BP's Lord Browne (now with Carlyle)


BBC News reported on a $373 million fine levied by the U.S. Justice Department on British Petroleum for committing criminal acts, including fraud. BP was fined $50 million for the Texas City Refinery explosion in 2005 that killed 15 workers and injured 170 more. The firm also will pay $303 million for a natural gas price manipulation scheme that ran from April 2003 to February 2004. Four lower level employees have been indicted.

So what happened to Lord John Browne, the CEO who oversaw the company's operations while these criminal acts occurred? The BBC piece only mentions his resigning after a personal scandal. It failed to say he's now a top dog in The Carlyle Group's Riverstone Holdings, an energy joint venture. That was after Carlyle's James Baker let him off the hook in an outside study of the Texas City explosion. The PEU boys do look after one another...