Six investors who bought shares in BP in London prior to the accident or in its immediate aftermath claim that they would not have done so at the price they did “had they known the truth”. They include the South Yorkshire Pensions Authority, Skandia Global Funds and GAM Fund Management.
The funds allege that they lost “substantial sums as a result of BP’s misleading statements”, and are suing under Texas law for common law fraud and negligent misrepresentation, and for statutory fraud. The US Supreme Court blocked foreign investors seeking damages in federal courts.
The claimants are seeking damages “in an amount to be proved at trial” but the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Pomerantz Haudek Grossman & Gross, said the claims were likely to total tens of millions of dollars. They said they were in talks with further investors who could join the action.
The investors claim BP and its then chief executive, Tony Hayward, misled them over its “safety first” policies in the years before the disaster, the size of the oil spill following the accident, and “the degree of BP’s likely responsibility for the catastrophe”.