<P> The GCCF was administrated by attorney Kenneth Feinberg . The facility began accepting claims on 23 August 2010 . On 8 March 2012, after BP and a team of plaintiffs' attorneys agreed to a class - action settlement, a court - supervised administrator Patrick Juneau took over administration . Until this more than one million claims of 220,000 individual and business claimants were processed and more than $6.2 billion was paid out from the fund . 97% of payments were made to claimants in the Gulf States . In June 2012, the settlement of claims through the GCCF was replaced by the court supervised settlement program . During this transition period additional $404 million in claims were paid . </P> <P> The GCCF and its administrator Feinberg had been criticized about the amount and speed of payments as well as a lack of transparency . An independent audit of the GCCF, announced by Attorney General Eric Holder, was approved by Senate on 21 October 2011 . An auditor BDO Consulting found that 7,300 claimants were wrongly denied or underpaid . As a result, about $64 million of additional payments was made . The Mississippi Center for Justice provided pro bono assistance to 10,000 people to help them "navigate the complex claims process ." In a New York Times opinion piece, Stephen Teague, staff attorney at the Mississippi Center for Justice, argued that BP had become "increasingly brazen" in "stonewalling payments ." "But tens of thousands of gulf residents still haven't been fully compensated for their losses, and many are struggling to make ends meet . Many low - wage workers in the fishing and service industries, for example, have been seeking compensation for lost wages and jobs for three years ." </P> <P> In July 2013 BP made a motion in court to freeze payments on tens of thousands of claims, arguing inter alia that a staff attorney from the Deepwater Horizon Court - Supervised Settlement Program, the program responsible for evaluating compensation claims, had improperly profited from claims filed by a New Orleans law firm . The attorney is said to have received portions of settlement claims for clients he referred to the firm . The federal judge assigned to the case, Judge Barbier, refused to halt the settlement program, saying he had not seen evidence of widespread fraud, adding that he was "offended by what he saw as attempts to smear the lawyer administering the claims ." </P> <P> By 26 May 2010, over 130 lawsuits relating to the spill had been filed against one or more of BP, Transocean, Cameron International Corporation, and Halliburton Energy Services, although it was considered likely by observers that these would be combined into one court as a multidistrict litigation . On 21 April 2011, BP issued $40 billion worth of lawsuits against rig owner Transocean, cementer Halliburton and blowout preventer manufacturer Cameron . The oil firm alleged failed safety systems and irresponsible behaviour of contractors had led to the explosion, including claims that Halliburton failed to properly use modelling software to analyze safe drilling conditions . The firms deny the allegations . </P>

How much money did the bp oil spill cost