When veteran government auditor Bobby Maxwell learned oil giant Kerr McGee was not paying the $10 million he says it owed in oil royalties, he prepared an order to Kerr McGee to pay up. Making sure the government gets its money from energy companies was Maxwell's job in the Minerals Management Service (MMS), a division of the Department of the Interior. But Maxwell claims his bosses at the MMS quashed that order.
Kerr-McGee has a number of wells on federal lands that they are supposed to pay a royalty to have. They don't.
After filing a lawsuit under the False Claims Act, which protects and encourages whistleblowers, Maxwell lost his job.
It was called a "reorganization." However, the only one affected by this was Maxwell.
"I felt very strongly that the American taxpayers just had $10 million stolen out of their pocket," Maxwell tells NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa. "And that that needed to be remedied."
In the trial itself, Kerr-McGee's lawyers ducked the issue of not having paid the fees, but instead focused on how Maxwell would gain a small percentage of this if he won. They used numerous stall tactics and doubletalk. The jury took a total of two hours to find Kerr-McGee guilty. Kerr-McGee was fined $30 million ($10 million in back money owed plus $20 million in punative damages for knowingly doing this.) However, about two weeks later, the judge in the case, already working on another one, magically overruled the jury and found Kerr-McGee innocent. (Can you say coercion?) An appeal has been filed, along with a lawsuit under the whistleblower's protection act for Maxwell.
It's a crying shame that people think they can get away with anything just as long as they have the right connections. >_<
Quamp's discount manga/anime fan fiction
The Texas Conventions a Collection of artwork I've collected over various conventions.
