NEW ORLEANS – The special investigator in the ongoing BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill case charged with rooting out corruption within the claims process has been seriously injured in an automobile accident.
According to the Vermont Standard, ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh, 64, was severely injured in a one-car accident in Barnard, Vt. around noon yesterday after he struck a mailbox and tree. Following the incident theVermont Standard reports Freeh was evacuated to a nearby hospital via helicopter. The cause of the accident was not released.
“The thoughts and prayers of the entire FBI remain with former Director Freeh and his family tonight,” said James Comey, the current director of the FBI, in a statement provided to the Vermont Standard.
Freeh was asked to be a special investigator on the Deepwater Horizon case by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in July 2013 after claims administrator Patrick Juneau revealed an internal investigation into the Court Supervised Settlement Program (CSSP) showed potential conflicts of interest.
He released an in-depth report last September that indicated what he called a “money laundering” scheme between the AndryLerner law firm and CSSP attorney Lionel Sutton in which Sutton allegedly received a referral fee for sending a shrimper Casey Thonn to AndryLerner who received a $357,000 fee that was later found to be based on fraudulent tax documents.
Freeh also alleged Sutton unsuccessfully used his position within the CSSP to attempt to expedite Thonn’s claim. After the alleged scheme was discovered, Freeh suggested that the Department of Justice look into the issue.
More recently Freeh discovered another AndryLerner client had based a $50,000 claim on fraudulent tax documents. Freeh had been continuing his investigation into suspicious claims at the time of the accident.