BP Gulf oil spill compensation fund faces fraud risk

The administrator in charge of a 12.5bn fund created in order to compensate victims of the BP oil spill has stated that there is no doubt that fraudulent claims are being made. Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator, has pledged to be vigilant over who receives the payments in order to protect the integrity of the fund. To date there has already been $1.3bn paid out in the form of emergency payments. There have also been 160,000 applications for compensation; half of these were filed in the last two week. Mr Feinberg states, Thats some indication that citizens think that the programme is available to generously pay them. He has also stated that every application will be dealt with care ensuring that no fraudulent compensation claims are paid out. He has stated, nothing would undercut the credibility of this fund more than fraud and the payment of ineligible claims. The purpose of this fund is to provide money to the resident of the Gulf of Mexico and also businesses for lost wages and profits and personal injuries and clean up. Numerous other claims have been made in relation to other matters. The oil spill which started on the 20th April with the explosion of the BP leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig caused widespread disruption along the US Gulf Coast. It is estimated that 206 million gallons of oil entered into the Gulf before BP managed to cap the well in August.