Thursday, June 17, 2010

83 Billion losses for BP. This is enough to save Greece.

According to the NYT...



Even misdemeanor convictions under environmental laws could produce stunningly large fines under general federal criminal statutes, Mr. Uhlmann added. That is because the Alternative Fines Act allows the federal government to request twice the gain or loss associated with an offense if the Justice Department shows that a crime was committed.



Predictions by analysts of the overall cost of the spill to BP, when criminal penalties are included, have been rising. On Wednesday, Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James, estimated the total legal cost, including criminal fines, at $62.9 billion, which would dwarf the $20 billion escrow account to be used to pay claims of economic loss.



So we're talking $83 billion is possible. Suddenly the $90 or so billion having been clipped from BP's market cap is making a lot of sense.

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