BP asks federal judge to halt approval of billions in payments for fictitious 'losses'

BP asked a federal judge on Friday to block the Deepwater Horizon claims administrator from awarding what it said could be billions of dollars in payments for "business economic losses" that it says are based on "fictitious" claims of economic damage.

"BP suffers imminent harm because the settlement program is about to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, and what could reach billions of dollars, in awards to claims asserting fictitious losses -- with more claims being made on a daily basis," said the motion filed Friday.

The claims were filed with the Deepwater Horizon Court Supervised Settlement Program, overseen by claims administrator Patrick Juneau of Lafayette, under a class action settlement between private claimants and BP that was approved by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier Jr. in December.

The settlement was intended to compensate claimants for economic damages resulting from the blowout of BP's Macondo well in April 2010, which caused a fire and explosions aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing 11 workers, and resulted in the uncontrolled flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for three months.

More at http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2013/03/bp_asks_federal_judge_to_halt.html#incart_more_business .