Feds demand "advance notice" of any BP cash transfers or asset sales

Is there a lawyer in the house?  Under what authority can the Obama regime demand advance notice of "any significant cash transfers or asset sales?"  Is the United States now a creditor or major shareholder in BP North America?

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[BP] confirmed a report in the Financial Times on Wednesday that U.S. assistant attorney general Tony West wrote to the company on June 23. Normally the U.S. Justice Department does not require advance notice of such deals.

BP spokeswoman Sheila Williams said the oil company had not responded to the letter but would do so "in due course." She declined to say whether the Justice Department had set a deadline.

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If BP needs to transfer cash from one of its subsidiaries to another, for whatever reason, it is none of the government's business.  If BP decides to sell an asset--such as the rights to drill off the Vietnamese or Venezuelan coasts--then it is free to do so, for whatever reason and that too is none of the government's business.

The BP spokeswoman said that the "demand" was made on June 23, but that as of July 7, it had not responded.  If I'm Bob Dudley, I know what my response is, and I wouldn't need two weeks to deliver it:

SCREW YOU.

Gimme some feedback in the comments.