BP Pleads Guilty, Will Pay $4 Billion In Criminal Penalties For Gulf Oil Spill [1]

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burned on April 21, 2010.
U.S. Coast Guard/Getty Images

Update at 11:30 a.m. ET: Oil giant BP has agreed to plead guilty to criminal misconduct related to the 2010 Gulf Oil spill [2] and will pay a record $4 billion in criminal penalties, the company just confirmed [3]. And it will pay $525 million in civil penalties in a resolution with the Securities and Exchanges Commission. BP will make the payments over six years.

About $2.4 billion of the criminal fine, BP says, will "be paid to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) over a period of five years. In addition, $350 million will be paid to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) over a period of five years."