NEW YORK -- Regulators Thursday charged a former BP (IW 1000/4) employee who worked on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill with insider trading after he sold $1 million worth of BP stock days after the disaster.
Keith Seilhan, who coordinated BP's cleanup of the giant oil spill, sold his family's entire portfolio of BP stock over two days in late April 2010 after he learned the spill was far bigger than BP was saying publicly, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Seilhan learned oil was spilling out between 52,700 and 62,200 barrels per day. BP at the time estimated the flow rate to be just 5,000 barrels a day, the SEC said.
The Coast Guard rebutted the BP statements, saying that while cleanup had moved into a "middle response," the job was not done and more staff could be mobilized as needed.
"Let me be absolutely clear," said Coast Guard Captain Thomas Sparks. "This response is not over -- not by a long shot."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
