Suits Say U.S. Impeded Audits for Oil Leases: Rebellion by investigators

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Suits Say U.S. Impeded Audits for Oil Leases
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: September 21, 2006

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — Four government auditors who monitor leases for oil and gas on federal property say the Interior Department suppressed their efforts to recover millions of dollars from companies they said were cheating the government.

The accusations, many of them in four lawsuits that were unsealed last week by federal judges in Oklahoma, represent a rare rebellion by government investigators against their own agency.

The auditors contend that they were blocked by their bosses from pursuing more than $30 million in fraudulent underpayments of royalties for oil produced in publicly owned waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The agency has lost its sense of mission, which is to protect American taxpayers,” said Bobby L. Maxwell, who was formerly in charge of Gulf of Mexico auditing. “These are assets that belong to the American public, and they are supposed to be used for things like education, public infrastructure and roadways.”

The lawsuits have surfaced as Democrats and Republicans alike are questioning the Bush administration’s willingness to challenge the oil and gas industry....

***

In defying their own agency, the Interior Department’s auditors sued the oil companies under a federal law, called the False Claims Act, that was created to allow individuals to expose fraud against the government. People who successfully recover money for the government in such cases are entitled to a portion. A losing company is required to pay triple the amount of recovered money as well as back interest — potentially more than $120 million in the cases brought by the auditors....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/business/21royalty.html?ei=5094&en=6a768e6c6f4a155a&hp=&ex=1158897600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1158813232-LtiDMBLkZmkgofQqfkdsMQ&pagewanted=all

[Hawkowl]

1. Kudos

to the auditors! Maybe other government investigators can sue on their own as well and collect rewards! Maybe we can privatize auditing. Turn it into white collar bounty hunting. How's that for free market capitalism?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Oh, this is simply too hideous! I'm SO GLAD they have come forward.

I'm in shock after reading this, from the article:

The new accusations surfaced just one week after the Interior Department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, told a House subcommittee that “short of crime, anything goes” at the top levels of the Interior Department.

In two of the lawsuits, two senior auditors with the Minerals Management Service in Oklahoma City said they were ordered to drop their claim that Shell Oil had fraudulently shortchanged taxpayers out of $18 million.

A third auditor, also in Oklahoma City, charged that senior officials in Denver ordered him to drop his demand that two dozen companies pay $1 million in back interest.

And in a suit that was filed in 2004, Mr. Maxwell charged that senior officials in Washington ordered him not to press claims that the Kerr-McGee Corporation had cheated the government out of $12 million in royalties.
(snip)

If they hadn't told us, NO ONE would have ever known this, ever, and it would have been concealed by the next right-wing pResident Diebold selects.

[Supersedeas]

6. will they be attacked and villified by the Media accomplices too??

[OneBlueSky]

3. not only is BushCo the most corrupt government in US history . . .

they are on the fast track to becoming one of the most corrupt in the history of humanity . . . oh, there are a few that still have them beat hands down -- but it's not for their lack of trying . . .

if they aren't stopped, the US will truly become a theocratic oligarchy dictated by a small group of fabulously wealthy, amoral people who own or control everything and everyone . . . we, the people, will have no power whatsoever over our own lives, or the life of our nation . . .

we must act . . . the time is now . . .

World Can't Wait! Drive Out The Bush Regime!

http://www.worldcantwait.org/

read the ad . . . sign the petition . . .

it's time . . . (hell, it's way past time!) . . .

[brer cat]

4. Big oil making all time record profits

and still they cheat and steal? My God, how low can they go?

[lovuian]

5. Oil companies have raped this country

Halliburton and Exxon have been beneficiaries

[elehhhhna]

7. Rebellion by investigators = more Mutiny againt the BA.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2186282&mesg_id=2186282

[elehhhhna]

8. Interior was run by Brownie's mentor. Web, meet tangle.

[dkofos]

9. Good for them

I hope they win and get their bonus.

What I would really like to see is their "bosses"
in jail.

[glitch]

10. Brave people with integrity. Good start to the day. Thanks for posting. nt