BP’s agreement to pay a record amount in fines for the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster does not mean the government threw the book at the corporate oil giant.

In a deal reached with the U.S. Department of Justice, BP will plead guilty to 11 counts of felony manslaughter, one count of felony obstruction of Congress, and several counts of violating federal environmental laws. The company will pay $4.5 billion, the largest fine ever levied against a company in the United States.

But the penalty could have been much greater, according to David Uhlmann, the former chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the Justice Department, who teaches at the University of Michigan Law School.

“The Justice Department has obtained the largest criminal fines in U.S. history, although it could be argued that the amounts are modest when you consider that BP faced up to $30 billion to 40 billion for the Clean Water Act violations,” Uhlmann told the Corporate Crime Reporter. “It also is curious that the Justice Department agreed that BP could have five years to pay the penalties, since criminal fines are supposed to be paid immediately unless there are ability to pay issues.” In addition, the fine represents only a small portion of BP’s 2011 profits of $27.5 billion.

BP could still wind up paying considerably more for causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The company will go to trial in February to challenge claims that it was grossly negligent while operating the oil rig that exploded, killing eleven workers and unleashing 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. If it is found grossly negligent, BP could pay as much as $21 billion in pollution fines under the Clean Water Act.

In addition to imposing fines, the Justice Department charged three BP employees with criminal offenses. Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine are accused of manslaughter as a result of grossly negligent conduct in their supervision of the Deepwater Horizon rig, while executive David Rainey is charged with making false statements to law enforcement officials and obstructing Congress by withholding documents and manipulating data relating to the amount of oil that was flowing into the Gulf.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

BP a Felon, to Pay $4 Billion (Corporate Crime Reporter)

BP Agrees to Plead Guilty to Crimes in Gulf Oil Spill (by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica)

BP Will Plead Guilty and Pay Over $4 Billion (by Clifford Krauss and John Schwartz, New York Times)

United States v. BP Exploration and Production (U.S. District Court, Eastern Louisiana) (pdf)

More No-Show Witnesses in Oil Rig Explosion Probe (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

BP Employee Refuses to Testify; Is Prosecution in the Cards? (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)