"High Ranking" DOJ Officials BLOCKED Whistleblower Cases Against Oil Industry

[kpete]

High-ranking Interior Department officials blocked routine subpoenas seeking company records that could document the fraudulent underpayment of royalties

* Posted on Friday, September 12, 2008
U.S. attorney: Justice blocked me from joining royalty suit

By Greg Gordon and Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said Washington overruled his request to enter the case against the Kerr-McGee Corp. A lawyer for the whistleblower said he was told that decision was made "at the highest levels" of the Justice Department, then run by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

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Meanwhile, former MMS auditors have alleged in some of the 80 lawsuits that high-ranking Interior Department officials blocked them from issuing routine subpoenas seeking company records that could document the fraudulent underpayment of royalties.

The disclosures come in the wake of scathing reports from internal watchdogs this week over the Interior Department's mismanagement of oil leases and are likely to fan criticism that the Bush administration has ignored allegations that oil companies have cheated taxpayers out of tens of billions of dollars in fees for the rights to drill on federal lands.

In three reports released this week, the Interior Department's inspector general disclosed that officials of the agency's Minerals Management Service had engaged in illicit sex and drug use with oil company employees and had accepted thousands of dollars in gifts, golf and ski outings, meals and drinks while overseeing the leasing and royalty payments.

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more at:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/52420.html

[bronxiteforever]

1. The GOP DESTROYED their National Security Issue with energy-

They turned the Interior Department into the Scarface set.

This is the party that can be trusted regulating the country's energy?.



This is the party of Country First. This is going to hit the coverage "big time".

K & R :rofl: