Leader on BP claims blames fraud for slow payouts

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Associated Press

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – BP's $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Gulf oil spill has been inundated with inflated or unsupported claims and in some cases, outright fraud — all slowing down the process of getting money to people who need and deserve it, the administrator of the program says.

Kenneth Feinberg said more than a third of the roughly 104,000 applicants need to do more to back up their claims, and thousands of claims have no documentation at all. He added that the amount sought in some cases bears no resemblance to actual losses, such as a fisherman's claim for $10 million "on what was obviously a legitimate claim of a few thousand dollars."

"People can put down on a claims form all sorts of numbers," he said.

At the same time, hundreds of claims that were initially denied have been accepted as Feinberg adjusts rules for compensation, such as whether people need to be physically close to the spill to get paid.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101005/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_claims_5