WASHINGTON — BP will pay $4.5bn in penalties and plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which caused the worst US offshore oil spill ever.US Attorney General Eric Holder called the deal a "critical step forward" but was adamant that it did not end the criminal investigation of the 2010 spill.The settlement announced on Thursday includes a $1.256bn criminal fine, the largest such levy in US history. It was not, however, the "global" settlement some had hoped for, which would have also resolved the considerable federal civil claims against the company at the same time."BP lied to me. They lied to the people of the Gulf. And they lied to their shareholders, and they lied to all Americans," said Representative Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee who led investigations at the time of the spill.The government also indicted the two highest-ranking BP supervisors aboard the Deepwater Horizon during the disaster, charging them ...
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