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Rare Corporate Prosecution: West Virginia’s “King of Coal” Sentenced for Conspiracy in Mine Deaths
Loaded on Nov. 8, 2016
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2016, page 61
Filed under:
Work,
Workplace Injury,
Work Conditions/Safety,
Sentencing,
U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
Location:
West Virginia.
Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, conspired to “willfully violate mandatory mine health and safety standards” to maximize his personal profits, and on April 5, 2010, an explosion attributed to safety violations claimed the lives of 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. …
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