MSHA Under FBI Investigation:

May 1, 2010

DEVELOPING:
MSHA, Massey Energy Under Possible FBI Bribery Investigation
Case Originated in US Attorney’s Office in WV

By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter

Washington, DC (HNN) – National Public Radio has reported that the FBI is looking into “possible bribery of employees of the Mine Safety and Health Administration” in connection with “potential criminal negligence on the part of Massey Energy.” The company owns the Upper Big Branch mine near Beckley, W.Va., where on April 5 twenty-nine miners lost their lives.

Massey Energy issued a statement that they have “no knowledge” of criminal wrongdoing, adding, “It is not uncommon that an accident of the size and scope of UBB would lead to a comprehensive investigation by relevant law enforcement agencies.”

The Los Angeles Times has reported that the Justice Department had stepped into the mining tragedy and that the case “originated in the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of West Virginia.” Both the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District (who referred questions to the Justice Department) have declined comment.

According to the NPR report and one by the Associated Press, about two dozen current and former employees of Massey have been interviewed in connection with the criminal investigation.

Late Friday afternoon, April 30, a federal law enforcement source denied that the MSHA is part of the UBB mine disaster investigation. “I can say that there’s an investigation but it’s not about them (MSHA),” the report said. However, NPR “stands by” its earlier report.

NPR discovered the criminal investigation after one of their reporter’s tried to interview a miner. The miner said he could not talk because he was “being interviewed by an FBI agent and an investigator from MSHA.”

Previously released MSHA documents showed that two “special investigations” were launched in 2009 concerning the UBB mine. Though, the so-called “preliminary special investigations” are referenced in MSHA records, there was no documentation provided on how these probes --- which generally open criminal investigations --- were closed.

“We are not sharing special investigation data with anybody right now,” said Kevin Stricklin, MSHA coal administrator. “That’s private,” the Charleston Gazette reported.

Contradicting the Massey Energy response that “it is not uncommon” for relevant law enforcement agencies to be involved, Tony Oppegard, a former senior official of MSHA and a former mine safety prosecutor in Kentucky, told NPR that FBI involvement in a mine disaster is “extremely rare. I’ve never heard of it before.”

The NPR story and updates can be found by clicking here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/04/fbi_probing_fed_officials_and.html. The LA Times story can be found at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-massey-investigation-20100430,0,7650481.story.

Massey CEO Don Blankenship will be interviewed on Decision Makers which airs Sunday morning, May 2 at 8 a.m. on various West Virginia Media Holdings television stations. Blankenship said, in part in the interview, “ Our people know we do not condone anything like that… something of the nature described by National Public Radio would be very serious.”