Judge Allows Montana Fraud Suit Against BP

A Montana judge will allow a fraud complaint to go forward against oil giant BP, but he cautioned that the state has a long way to go to prove its claims.

Montana is accusing the British company, its subsidiaries and predecessors of “double-dipping” by taking state money to clean up spills from leaky storage tanks underneath their service stations without disclosing that they had also collected insurance money for the same spills.

Attorneys for BP had asked District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the state offered no proof and was on a fishing expedition.

Sherlock ruled Thursday that the state could bring the complaint against BP, but says the case’s future hinges on whether actual proof is uncovered during the lawsuit’s discovery phase.