Tagged: BP oil spill

A federal magistrate has scheduled a hearing on a former BP engineer's request for permission to travel freely throughout the U.S. while he awaits a trial on charges he deleted text messages about the oil company's response to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. Magistrate Daniel Knowles III is set to hear arguments May 29 on Kurt Mix's request.

Earlier this month, Knowles ordered Mix to limit his travel to Louisiana, Texas, Massachusetts and New York after a prosecutor claimed he had intended to leave the country for a job in Australia and wouldn't return.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former BP engineer charged with deleting text messages about how much oil was leaking from the company's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico is claiming that evidence federal investigators did not possess will prove him innocent. Kurt Mix has pleaded not guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a 41-year-old businessman who moved to New Orleans from Georgia after the catastrophic BP oil spill in 2010 has been charged with defrauding a compensation fund set up for victims.

The Justice Department says Dwayne Smith was charged last week on one count of mail fraud.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten alleges Smith moved to New Orleans four months after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and set up a business called D&D Designs.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has pushed back the start of a civil trial for claims against BP PLC and other companies involved in the 2010 Gulf oil spill. The judge on Thursday set a date of Jan. 14, 2013. The litigation centers on the oil spill that began in April 2010 from BP's Macondo well.