A lawyer accused of wrongdoing in the handling of damage claims from the 2010 Gulf oil spill has testified before a federal judge. The Associated Press reports U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier heard today from one of the lawyers at the center of a probe into claims of fraud arising from a settlement of civil litigation following the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig disaster that sent millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf.
Lionel Sutton III denied wrongdoing and contended that he never acted improperly even as he took a hefty fee for a claim that he was processing. A 2013 probe by former FBI director Louis Freeh alleged several instances of wrongdoing by claimants and lawyers. Freeh charged that lawyers acted improperly and in some instances illegally.
