Court Order to Help Freedom Grand Jury Probe

A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday authorized Freedom Industries Inc., the company behind the West Virginia chemical spill, to continue cooperating with a federal grand jury investigation of the spill.

Judge Ronald G. Pearson of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Charleston, W.Va., specifically authorized Freedom to hire a digital investigations firm to help it gather and preserve electronic records in connection with the probe, court papers show.

In its request to hire Vestige Ltd., Freedom said it has been “coordinating with the relevant government agencies in good faith to comply with all of the electronic document requests.”

Hiring Vestige at the quoted cost of $42,555 would allow it to continue cooperating with the probe and avoid “further legal action and/or sanctions from the governmental agencies and/or this court,” Freedom said.

In addition to the grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice, Freedom disclosed it has also faced document requests from West Virginia’s attorney general, among others.

Freedom Industries sought Chapter 11 protection on Jan. 17, days after the chemical spill that tainted a significant portion of West Virginia’s water supply. The company has since announced it will shut down operations as it works to clean up the spill.

-Joseph Checkler contributed to this article.

Write to Jacqueline Palank at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @PalankJ.