BP sued for 'mismanaging' funds

File photo dated 03/04/07 of a general view of a BP garage sign in Hampton Court, Surrey. BP is expected to post a mammoth 7.6 billion US dollars (£3.6 billion) in second-quarter profits today as the corporate giant is buoyed by surging oil prices.

Lawsuit: BP North America 'mismanaged' retirement funds, employees say

Stephen Kelly

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By News Wires

 31 May 2011 18:57 GMT

BP’s North American unit was accused in a lawsuit by its employees of mismanaging their retirement savings plans by investing heavily in its own stock before last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP’s safety and compliance record before the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig made the company’s US shares an “imprudent investment”, according to a consolidated master complaint filed last week in federal court in Houston.

BP North America, its directors and members of the savings-plan committee breached their fiduciary duty by buying BP stock and “failing to divest the plans” of the shares, the employees said, according to a Bloomberg report.

“A disaster of the proportion of Deepwater Horizon and the resulting losses were both predictable and likely,” the employees said.

“Because of…

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