BP has asked a judge to halt all settlement payments over the Deepwater Horizon disaster while an independent investigation of the claims administrator’s office is carried out.
The oil giant lodged a court filing in New Orleans seeking an emergency temporary injunction to prevent further payments.
Former FBI director Louis Freeh is investigating claims of misconduct by Patrick Juneau, who has been administering the compensation fund for victims of the 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
“There is a material risk that payments going out the door have been and continue to be tainted by possibly fraudulent or corrupt activity,” BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a statement.
“No company would agree to bear the risk of improper payments in these circumstances.”
Lawyers for the British oil major say there is a risk other aspects of the claims process have been compromised because of the allegations.
Freeh was appointed by US District Judge Carl Barbier to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of impropriety within the court supervised settlement programme.
Judge Barbier last night did not immediately rule on BP’s request.
In April he refused to block what could be billions of dollars of payments to businesses after BP argued that he and claims Juneau misinterpreted the settlement and forced the company to cover inflated and fictitious losses.
The move comes just a day after BP launched a hotline encouraging people to report fraudulent compensation claims relating to the disaster.
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