The Wall Street Journal has a bombshell on today's front page--federal prosecutors are reportedly about to prepare the first criminal charges in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to sources at the Justice Department. (Apologies for the link to the WSJ's corporate cousin, Faux News--the original story is behind a paywall.)
Prosecutors are focused on several Houston-based engineers and at least one of their supervisors at the British oil company, though the breadth of the investigation isn't known. The prosecutors assert the employees may have provided false information to regulators about the risks associated with the Gulf of Mexico well while its drilling was in progress, these people said.
As always--the cover-up is worse than the crime. According to the sources at Justice, the charges may be a threat to get the engineers to cooperate. If they don't, the charges could be made public in early 2012.
Several legal experts told the Journal that BP itself is expected to be indicted for violating the Clean Water Act, and will likely face other charges as well.
What we are witnessing here is a classic slow-motion strangulation. You don't bring an investigation against a major multinational company unless you've got something--and now that may be coming to light.