BP handed record fine over Deepwater Horizon spill It is the biggest criminal fine in US history. BP has been ordered to pay 4.5 billion US dollars as part of the settlement following the fatal Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010. Two BP employees have been indicted on manslaughter charges and a former manager charged with misleading the US Congress. BP still faces a raft of claims from private plaintiffs. EXT capital analyst Joe Rundle said: Getting this fine out of the way is a big hurdle for the stock price, it's a big overhang. So once this is done it then leads onto the civil claims which should be done in February and this will set a sort of level and people can start working out what level these civil claims are going to be. The Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 workers and spewed millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days hurting the environmnet and wreaking the local economies. The company must still answer significant legal challanges including cases brought by the states of Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. More about: BP, Oil spill, Trial, USA