HOUSTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - BP Plc filed a fraudlawsuit in U.S. court on Tuesday to halt some of the $2.3billion it set aside to compensate commercial fishermen forlosses claimed after the British oil company's 2010 offshore oilspill, the biggest in U.S. history.
The latest court action by BP seeking to reduce paymentsfrom the spill alleges that part of a group of fishermen hurt bythe spill, clients of lawyer Mikal C. Watts, did not exist.
"We now know that over half of Watts' allegedclients were phantoms: individuals never represented by Watts,in a number of cases not even commercial fishermen, and in someinstances individuals who are deceased," BP said in its courtfiling.
Watts's law office did not provide immediate comment.
BP said about $1 billion has already been paid out from theits so-called Seafood Compensation Fund, including payments toeight people represented by Watts.
The company did not say how many people in total havealready received payments from the seafood fund, which has $1.3billion left in it.
BP wants the court to halt the payouts, look into the fraudallegations, and potentially recover some of its money.
The company said Watts filed 648 individual crew claims -less than two percent of the more than 40,000 claimants hepurported to represent. Of those 648 claims, eight have beenfound eligible while 17 claims are still pending, the oilcompany said.
BP, which still faces potential fines under the Clean WaterAct, has filed numerous lawsuits to curb payouts related to thespill after taking provisions for $42.4 billion to cover theclean-up, compensation and fines.
The filing was made in U.S. court for the Eastern Districtof Louisiana, where a jury could soon reach a verdict in thetrial former BP engineer Kurt Mix, who allegedly deleted textmessages and voice mails about the estimated size of the spill.He has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstruction of justice.