September 16, 2008
McClatchy newspapers reports that the U.S. Attorney in Colorado was blocked from supporting a whistleblower suit against Kerr-McGee.
U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said that senior Justice Dept. officials overruled his request to intervene in the whistleblower case, jeopardizing the government’s prospects for recovering as much as $40 million from a major oil company for its alleged underpayment of royalties.
McClatchy found that the Justice Department has participated in only a handful of the 80 whistleblower cases brought against the oil industry since 1995.