BP to Suspend Dividend and Set Up Claim Fund

BP to Suspend Dividend and Set Up Claim Fund

“We care about the small people,” BP’s chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, said after the company’s deal with the White House. 

By JACKIE CALMES and HELENE COOPER 

WASHINGTON — Four days of intense negotiations between the White House and BP lawyers allowed President Obama to announce Wednesday that the oil  giant would create a $20 billion fund to pay damage claims to thousands of fishermen and others along the Gulf Coast.  

The fund will be administered by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the lawyer and mediator who ran the fund for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and has emerged as a troubleshooter on issues like executive compensation and resolving claims for asbestos and Agent Orange victims. 

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