BP’s Archaea, Founders Hit With Corporate Looting Allegations

Three fraternity brothers spent years stealing from the waste management company they founded before steering a lucrative opportunity to themselves and using it to start Archaea Energy Inc., which they sold to BP Plc for $4.1 billion, a newly unsealed lawsuit says.

The former college football teammates partnered with a fourth co-founder to treat Noble Environmental Inc.'s corporate coffers as a personal “piggy bank,” running up millions in improper expenses and giving themselves payouts disguised as low-interest loans, including one that funded the purchase of a house, according to the court filing made public Tuesday.

They then secretly cut Noble’s ...