Memo to Plaintiff Steering Committee: “So much right and wrong”

American Zombie published a memo written to Louis Freeh and Pat Juneau from the Plaintiff Steering Committee regarding policy on fraudulent BP claims, and his commentary is worth sharing:

The Zombie writes, “There is so much right and wrong with this letter, I don’t know where to begin. Let’s start with what’s right about it. The PSC is correct in that BP did agree to the current terms of the settlement and originally showed little concern for the potential of numerous fraudulent claims being filed under the agreed upon parameters. They are correct that recently the number of claims being paid has dwindled to a miserable number due to the overly zealous scrutiny of the Freeh group attempting to justify and expand their multi-gazillion dollar contract with the Claims Office. They are also correct in fighting for the claimants to get their claims paid in a reasonable time frame.”

What’s wrong about it? They suggest that when fraud is alleged or suspected the claimant be notified and give a chance to (a) withdraw the Claim, (b) do nothing, or (c) attempt to respond with an explanation, clarification and/or additional documentation. Was Casey Thonn given this option? The memo suggests that Louis Freeh was brought into the settlement to ‘enforce a broad array of local, state or federal statutes, ordinances, requirements or regulations.’ It follows with ‘The purpose is not to ‘catch’ people, but to validate legitimate settlement program claims.’ Uhhh…no.”

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