Bankruptcy Judge Ronald G. Pearson authorized Freedom Industries Inc., the company behind the West Virginia chemical spill, to continue cooperating with a federal grand jury investigation of the spill, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Judge Pearson 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 that 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.
