Focus Gulf Coast residents whose livelihoods are actually impacted by the oil spill: The guy in cost of doling out the statements bucks features a sliver of fantastic news for you personally.
“I anticipate taking very much less documentation [for claims] than would or else be required,” says Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund.
Such as, he might accept a captain’s note vouching for a fisherman’s salary rather than a tax return. The reason: Feinberg says he’s aware of a “real underground economy down in the Gulf,” where significantly work is done on a cash basis.
To be sure, it remains to be seen how that promise will hold up once funds starts rolling out and the claims keep piling up. Forbes has already pointed out that the $20 billion escrow fund that BP will create to create to compensate the spill’s victims is a welcome mat for false claims.
Feinberg’s not saying it will be easy to get profit. He notes that payouts will be subject to taxation and scrutiny by the IRS, which may discourage some false claims.
In addition, he may get tough on future claims. For example—Feinberg’s fond of hypothetical examples—he may possibly offer a fisherman who expects to be out of work for a year $180,000 to release BP of all liability. And what if the fisherman says he wants $360,000 because he expects to be out of work for two years?
“That individual will be offered $180,000, and if he or she doesn’t want it,
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Feinberg, an animated Washington attorney with a heavy Massachusetts accent, has been the government’s go-to guy on major statements and dispute matters for nearly a decade. He was “special master” in the fund to compensate the families of 911 victim, and he’s currently winding up his stint as the Obama administration’s “pay czar” overseeing executive compensation practices at some in the largest bailed out financial firms.
Feinberg was at the headquarters of watchdog group Public Citizen on Tuesday to talk about Wall Street bonuses,
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To date BP has paid more than $200 million in claims related to the oil spill in April, but it hasn’t made its first large deposit to the claims fund. Feinberg says that Dudley has assured him that the dough is on the way, and he expects both the fund and the statements facility to be up and running sometime in August. At that point, he says, the compensation fund will begin making emergency payments for up to six months of lost wages.
Then it gets tough. A key challenge going forward will be determining the eligibility of a claim. To illustrate: while it’s obvious that a beachside motel that has no customers as a result for the spill is eligible,
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And what about the possibility of BP exerting too a great deal influence over the payouts to victims? Feinberg,
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That remains to be seen as well.
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