Don Blankenship testifies before the U.S. Senate Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing on mine safety, on May 20, 2010.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Alpha Natural Resources plans to ask that former Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship be forced to pay the company nearly $28 million in criminal restitution as part of Blankenship’s upcoming sentencing, defense lawyers revealed in a new federal court filing that opposes the request.
Alpha wants U.S. District Judge Irene C. Berger to order Blankenship to compensate the company for the millions of dollars it spent on the government investigation following the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, for legal fees Alpha paid for at least seven former Massey employees and for more than $10 million in fines that Alpha agreed to pay in a settlement reached after it bought Massey following the deadly explosion.
The Alpha request for compensation from Blankenship is outlined in a letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby to federal Probation Officer Jeff Gwinn, which was made public by Blankenship’s defense team as an exhibit to its legal motion and brief arguing that Berger should throw out the company restitution request.
“This is an unprecedented attempt to add draconian penalties to an offense that Congress has classified as a misdemeanor, and Alpha has no right to recover any of these expenditures from Mr. Blankenship as restitution,” the defense lawyers said…