Two men have been indicted by a Florida grand jury for making fraudulent damages claims against BP in relation to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The men, both from Florida, allegedly made false claims of economic losses they said they suffered as boat captains because of the 2010 spill, which followed a huge explosion that claimed 11 lives on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
Prosecutors contend that one of the men has never been a boat captain and the other was incarcerated at the time of the disaster in April 2010.
Marque Amason is charged with wire fraud and William Soong is charged with mail fraud.
If convicted the men face possible 20-year prison terms.
Two weeks ago BP threw in the towel in its attempt to resist paying around $1bn, the second portion of a $2.3bn payout to seafood industry claimants. The company had been resisting because of the proliferation of seemingly fraudulent and falsely inflated claims.
So far BP has paid out around $55bn in liabilities related to the disaster.
BP is pursuing a civil fraud claim against a Texas lawyer who has been indicted for lying and fraud in spill claims against BP.
