Federal prosecutors are considering criminal charges against individual BP engineers for allegedly providing federal regulators with false information related to the safety of the well that was at the center of the nation’s largest offshore oil spill, according to a source involved with the case.

The source said it is not yet clear if the Department of Justice will target individual BP employees or focus on charges against the company. But the source said a decision could be made as soon as next month.

The charges could come nearly two years after the Macondo well blowout and Deepwater Horizon rig explosion killed 11 workers and spilled an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, that federal prosecutors were preparing felony charges against several Houston-based engineers and at least one of their supervisors.

via BP employees could face criminal spill charges – Houston Chronicle.