Prison Time for Former CEO’s Role in 2010 Mine Explosion
From Powder/Bulk Solids Prison Time for Former CEO’s Role in 2010 Mine Explosion April 7, 2016 A former CEO of Massey Energy was sentenced to a year in prison on Wednesday at the US District Court in Charleston, WV for a conspiracy to falsify dust samples in the wake of what is said to be the the deadliest American coal mine explosion in decades. Don Blankenship, who headed the company until 2010, will spend one year in prison and faces fines of $250,000 following his conviction in December on a misdemeanor charge of conspiring to violate federal mine safety laws. In April 2010, 29 miners died in Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, WV after a coal dust explosion. Investigators determined that faulty cutting equipment ignited a build-up of coal dust and methane gas, according to an Associated Press report . Responding in a statement to Blankenship’s sentence, US Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said that the punishment may offer some condolen...