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BP agrees to pay $4.5B; 3 employees charged

By Michael Kunzelman
Published November 15, 2012 5:00am ET
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BP agrees to pay $4.5B; 3 employees charged
U.S. Attorney General speaks about the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill settlement and criminal penalties at 400 Poydras Tower in the Central Business District of in New Orleans, La. Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. Holder said the settlement and indictments aren't the end of federal authorities' efforts and that the criminal investigation is continuing. Holder says much of the money BP has agreed to pay will be used to restore the environment in the Gulf. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton) | Matthew Hinton

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A day of reckoning arrived for BP on Thursday as the oil giant agreed to plead guilty to a raft of charges in the deadly Gulf of Mexico spill and pay a record $4.5 billion, including the biggest criminal fine in U.S. history. Three BP employees were also charged, two of them with manslaughter.

The settlement with the federal government came 2? years after the fiery drilling-rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the nation’s largest offshore oil spill.

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