Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Will they make it to the top?
Prosecutors have indicted another employee of the Upper Big Branch Mine for the fatal mine disaster in 2010. This time they are reaching into management in what some people hope is an effort to criminally prosecute the top management.
Federal prosecutors announced the indictment of Gary May, a superintendent of the West Virginia coal mine where an explosion left 29 dead in 2010...That is quite a goal they have set for themselves.
But Mr. May, one of the mine’s two superintendents, is the most senior, and industry observers say the indictment is an indication that prosecutors are getting closer to the executives who ran the company, Massey Energy, which has since been bought by Alpha Natural Resources.
“They’re moving up in the food chain,” said Tony Oppegard, a Kentucky lawyer who defends miners. “This will cause some sleepless nights for people high up in the corporate ladder.”
The indictment, filed in federal court in West Virginia on Wednesday morning, includes conspiracy to defraud the United States by impeding a federal agency, a felony that is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Perhaps more worrying for corporate officials, the type of indictment filed indicates that Mr. May is cooperating with prosecutors, a development that could eventually lead them to top executives, including Don L. Blankenship, the former head of Massey, who families of miners contend enforced a culture of cutting corners and ignoring risks for the sake of profit.
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