Massey's Blankenship convicted of blocking safety

OREANDA-NEWS. December 04, 2015. Former Massey Energy chief executive Don Blankenship has been found guilty of conspiring to violate mine safety standards.

But a federal jury in West Virginia cleared Blankenship of more serious charges of conspiring to defraud the US Mine Safety and Health Administration, securities fraud and making false statements after the April 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine.

Blankenship faces up to one year in prison on the misdemeanor charge of conspiring to willfully violate mandatory mine health and safety standards. He could have been sentenced to up to 30 years if he had been convicted on all counts.

A sentencing hearing has been tentatively scheduled for 23 March. Blankenship remains free until then under previously set bond conditions.

Attorneys for Blankenship did not return a request for comment.

Jurors deliberated for just over two weeks, after a six-week trial over Blankenship's actions surrounding the Upper Big Branch explosion, which killed 29 miners. The accident also launched a number of changes to federal mine safety oversight.

But none of the charges against Blankenship held him

directly responsible for the accident. Instead, during the trial and in the year leading up to it, prosecutors accused Blankenship of creating a corporate environment that encouraged employees to overlook potential safety hazards in favor of maintaining profitability and production.

Blankenship's attorneys had denied the allegations and claimed the US Justice Department did not adequately prove its case.