JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Twenty-seven people have been indicted on charges of participating in a scheme to defraud the compensation fund established as a result of the BP oil spill in 2010.
Twenty-six indictments charge a single count of mail fraud, while one indictment charges Justin Kelly, 33, of Jacksonville, with five counts of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
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If convicted of mail fraud, each individual faces up to 20 years in federal prison. In the case of Kelly, he faces an additional mandatory two-year term of imprisonment, which must be served consecutive to any sentence imposed for mail fraud. The indictments also notify the defendants that the U.S. will be seeking forfeiture money judgments for sums representing the amount of proceeds fraudulently received as a result of the charged criminal conduct.
According to the indictments, following the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which was being leased by BP -- formerly known as British Petroleum, the defendants misrepresented that they were employees of businesses that had been affected by the oil spill. They then filed lost income claims with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, an independent facility established to review and pay qualified claimants, whom BP had agreed to compensate.
The indictments allege that as part of the scheme to defraud, the defendants would mail documents in support of their fraudulent claims, resulting in funds being dispersed by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. In the case of Kelly, the indictment further alleges that he unlawfully used the identification of others to submit multiple claims.