BP sued over retirement plan losses

BP Plc was sued by an ex-employee over losses to the company’s retirement plan caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion and subsequent spill. Ralph Whitley yesterday sued London-based BP, its board, the Savings Plan Investment Oversight Committee of BP Corp. North America and the administrator of the plan in federal court in New York. He asked for unspecified damages. Whitley seeks to represent a class of plan participants and beneficiaries, from Jan. 1 to now, whose accounts held BP American depositary shares. BP stock has lost about half its value since the April 20 blast. According to the complaint, the shares were one of the retirement savings options in the plan. “The plan suffered millions of dollars in losses in plan benefits because substantial assets of the plan were imprudently invested or allowed to be invested by defendants in BP ADSs during the class period, in breach of defendants’ fiduciary duties,” Whitley said in the complaint. BP spokesman Toby Odone declined to comment. Whitley claims the defendants mismanaged plan assets, acted in their own interests rather than those of the plan participants, and continued to offer the shares as an investment alternative when BP’s negative financial and operating condition was being concealed.