Verdict Backing Oil-Royalty Whistle-Blower Is Overturned

News:
In a ruling that could have big implications for whistle-blowers, as well as for the oil and gas industry, a federal judge in Denver has overturned a jury’s verdict in favor of former Interior Department auditor Bobby Maxwell, who revealed that the Kerr-McGee Corporation cheated the government out of millions of dollars’ worth of royalties for oil and gas pumped in publicly owned coastal waters. The judge did not dispute that Maxwell had uncovered cheating by the company, nor the fact that Mr. Maxwell filed his lawsuit as a private citizen after senior Interior Department officials ordered him to abandon his findings. The judge did, however, rule that Maxwell was ineligible to sue Kerr-McGee as a private citizen because he had gathered most of his evidence while on the job, deciding so last week after consistently rejecting that same argument from Kerr-McGee throughout the trial.