In what officials say is the largest settlement ever in a government investigation of a mine disaster, Alpha Natural Resources agreed to pay $209 million in restitution and civil and criminal penalties for the role of its subsidiary,Massey Energy, in a mine explosion last year that killed 29 men in West Virginia.
The deal includes $46.5 million for the families of the victims and those who were injured in the blast, and includes terms that protect Alpha — but not individual Massey executives — from criminal prosecution, said Steven R. Ruby, an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia.But for the families of the miners killed in the accident — the worst such disaster in 40 years — the settlement was justice denied. Many were hoping for criminal charges against the people who ran Massey, the company that, according to the federal government’s own review, knowingly put their relatives in harm’s way.
“Families believe that senior executives should be prosecuted, but they don’t have any great faith that they will be, and that’s what they are afraid of,” said Mark Moreland, a lawyer who represents the families of two victims.
