BP's Guilty Plea Agreement: Record $4.5 Billion Fine, Manslaughter Charges

BP's day of reckoning has come as it agreed to pay the biggest criminal fine in U.S. history. The oil giant pleaded guilty to a raft of charges in the deadly Gulf of Mexico spill and agreed to pay a record $4.5 billion.

BP has agreed to plead guilty to felony misconduct for its role in the devastation caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But was the punishment enough? Some critics are calling it a slap on the wrist.

Eleven lives were lost in the world's largest accidental offshore oil spill. 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, contaminating 150 miles of shoreline. There were tens of billions of dollars in cleanup costs, with billions more in losses to fishing and tourist businesses.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder also announced that two BP supervisors aboard the Deepwater Horizon during the spill have been charged with 23 criminal counts, including manslaughter.