Klobuchar among senators seeking probe into shareholder bonuses for oil-spill company
Monday, May 24, 2010 at 2:41 pm
- 7 Comments
Transocean Ltd., the Swiss company operating the doomed Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it blew up last month, raised plenty of eyebrows last week when it announced its plan to pay out $1 billion in dividends to shareholders.
“It’s heartwarming to see that Transocean, the same company that rushed to limit its liability in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, seemed not to hesitate at all when it came to the decision to distribute its profits,” one maritime expert wrote of the plan.
Today, 19 Senate Democrats — including Sen. Amy Klobuchar — took the scrutiny a long step further, asking the Justice Department to investigate whether those payouts are appropriate “at a time when [the company] may be responsible for financial damages related to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.”
“Transocean’s stockholders,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, ”should not take huge profits from polluting our country’s Gulf Coast.”
We are concerned that such action to quickly move money out of corporate coffers to individual investors may make it more difficult to pursue liability claims against the company. Families of those who died in the disaster, the fishing industry that has been devastated by the oil spill and the governments that have worked full-time to clean up this spill deserve better. Transocean has also reported that it expects to make a $270 million profit on its insurance policy for the Deepwater Horizon, since the rig was insured for more than it was worth.
Signing onto the letter were Democratic Sens. Pat Leahy (Vt.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Mark Udall (Colo.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Robert Casey (Pa.).
Of note, Transocean is not exactly known for its corporate citizenship. Until recently, the company was based in Houston, but officials moved the headquarters to Switzerland “to avoid paying higher corporate taxes.“
7 Comments
Comment posted May 24, 2010 @ 7:30 pm
Of course .. This is what Capitalism does.. It makes profits off of death, negligent homicide and the biological genocide in the gulf coast.. The human capitol that was lost in the tragedy is of NO concern.. Look at Iraq.. We are all apathetically guilty of this too.. Our SUV’s , our houses and our lives are addicted to oil.. We are all oil junkies.. The needle pierces the Earths crust and if you hit the vein the wrong way the blood spurts out.. OPEC is the drug dealer in this case and they are trying to cover their tracks.. It’s Capitalism folks this is what they do.. They don’t need to follow rules because there is no rules.. They abide by the “credo” that “CAPITALISM WILL GOVERN ITSELF” .. In capitalism there is no governance… Just Anarchy…
Comment posted May 24, 2010 @ 8:46 pm
Are you kidding me???? They are going to be footing the bill for the cleanup!!! Attack the shareholders for the accident? There is nothing worse than a hippocrate!!! These Senators and the President receive money from them for “campaign contributions” and anybody else that uses anything made of oil has no leg to stand on!! Your computer, your TV, your car is full of plastic parts, cd’s, carpet, vinyl floors, polyester clothing, bottles of water, bottles of anything, furnature upholstery, shingles on your house, blacktop roads, etc………..Oh yeah, and if you have a 401K you should look closely at what stocks you own, you might be a shareholder! And what about all of the tax revenue that comes from them?
Comment posted May 24, 2010 @ 11:01 pm
Tony!
You just highlighted the problem.. The fact that we all use this poly garbage that eventually ends up in the ocean anyways would be a problem.. The piece of shit shareholders that are worthy of being leaches and vultures only accentuates this problem..
Comment posted May 25, 2010 @ 7:29 am
Wow!
One Billion dollars of profit $$$ sure could help the clean up.
But, I understand. I guess the responsible thing to do would be to give it to the weathy people who really need it.
Comment posted May 26, 2010 @ 12:51 am
Still waiting for the newly-anointed Holy Trinity’s teabagger take on this situation … unless I have to microwave-burn a palm oil-saturated popcorn offering first?
Comment posted June 1, 2010 @ 11:41 am
Regarding my last post directed at Jimmy/Rudy/Raymond, I came across this June 1 letter published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
“Has anyone else noticed that the Tea Party has been kind of quiet about the Gulf oil spill? How are we to pay for industry safeguards for everything from our energy needs to our food supply (got safe milk?) without some kind of taxation and regulation? Are we just going to trust industry to do the right thing? Let me know how that turns out.
KARL HERBER, MINNEAPOLIS”
Hmmmm.
Comment posted June 4, 2010 @ 12:10 am
By distributing it to the shareholders, the money would no longer be available to pay for cleanup or penalties.
It might also keep the stock from sliding like BP has.
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