“A Fraudulent Scheme”: New Mexico Sues Texas Oil Companies for Walking Away From Their Leaking Wells
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New Mexico is suing three Texas oil executives, Everett Willard Gray II, Robert Stitzel, and Marquis Reed Gilmore Jr., for allegedly orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to avoid plugging and cleaning up hundreds of oil and gas wells. The lawsuit, filed in late December, accuses the executives of transferring wells among shell corporations and using bankruptcy to shed responsibility for unprofitable wells while moving profitable ones to other companies they controlled. The state contends this pattern of fraud leaves New Mexico taxpayers to bear the millions of dollars in costs associated with plugging the wells, which can emit harmful gases and leak wastewater. The attorney general asserts the executives endangered the health of New Mexicans. One of the executives, Gray, denies the allegations, calling the lawsuit "meritless."
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