BP hikes claims czar's monthly fee to $1.25M

[Night Crawler]

Source: MSNBC

By HARRY R. WEBER

updated 1 minute ago
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PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Documents provided by the administrator of BP's claims fund for Gulf oil spill victims show the oil giant agreed to increase his law firm's monthly compensation from $850,000 to $1.25 million.

The documents furnished Friday to The Associated Press include a letter from former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to claims czar Kenneth Feinberg. Mukasey stated his belief that the extra money was warranted because Feinberg's duties had grown. Mukasey was asked by Feinberg to weigh in on how reasonable his compensation was.

The pay hike, detailed in a Tuesday letter from Mukasey to Feinberg, is retroactive to Jan. 15 and runs through the end of 2011.(snip)

The White House and BP appointed Feinberg last June to oversee payments from the fund to individuals and businesses. Since Feinberg took over the payment process, some $3.6 billion has been paid out to 172,000 claimants. Besides payments to individuals and businesses, the fund also can be used to pay for environmental damages and state and local response costs. Feinberg is not in charge of those payments.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42275072

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A guys gotta eat ya know.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Does the czar do flowers for the fallen of the cleanup? n/t

[unblock]

2. they couldn't find anyone willing to do it for only $1 million per month?

:shrug:

[nosmokes]

3. Feinberg should have his ass kicked just on general principle for this.

Do these fuckers not grasp the concept of adding insult to injury or(more likely IMHO) do they simply just not give a damn?

[LiberalFighter]

4. Why should it be any higher than $15k a month?

[golddigger]

5. Wow, no wonder he's dragging it out.

[golddigger]

6. Obama appointed this crook. Mr. hope and change!

[cvoogt]

7. this might not be unreasonable

seriously, this is for their firm, not just one guy. One guy can't process all those claims unless of course he's rubber-stamping them.
If there's a staff of oh, say, 10 people processing claims full-time and paid at attorney-level salaries ... it adds up quickly.
If it really were one guy, we should be much more worried about BP getting the claims wrong and then having the government bail them out when they have to fess up!!

[No Elephants]

8. Please. Paralegals or below are doing most of the work.

[sarcasmo]

9. In the end it is Greed that will destroy this Planet.