22 January 2014, News Wires – A former Halliburton boss who pled guilty to a single count of destroying evidence in BP’s Macondo spill reportedly avoided a prison sentence and was instead sentenced to a year’s probation, according to a wire report.
The sentencing documents for Anthony Badalamenti, of Katy, Texas were sealed but the Associated Press reported from Tuesday courtroom proceedings for the employee of the oilfield contractor, which provided cementing services for BP’s doomed Macondo well.
The 2010 blowout of the deep-water probe killed 11 men and spilled almost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Badalamenti – formerly cementing technology director at Halliburton – will also have to pay a $1000 fine and complete 100 hours of community service, according to the AP.
He could have faced up to a year in jail in connection with allegations that he ordered employees to delete simulations aimed at discovering whether the placement of centralisers played a role in the blowout, the news wire said.
“I have no doubt that you’ve learned from this mistake,” the AP quoted US district judge Jay Zainey as saying.
Badalamenti, 62, entered his formal plea in October in federal court.
Halliburton last July agreed to plead guilty to one criminal count of destroying evidence in the incident accepted the $200,000 maximum fine for the charge and three years’ probation, according to the Department of Justice.
– Upstream
