Just to clear up some confusion, the other day I linked to a Telegraph editorial asking why President Obama doesn’t go after Transocean and its dividend payment. I misquoted from the editorial and called Transocean an American company, while the actual quote from the Telegraph calls Transocena an “American firm now located in Switzerland.” The company moved it’s HQ to Switzerland a few years ago for tax purposes.

I received an e-mail asking if I, and the Telegraph, had misrepresented the Transocean dividend, as well. We have not. Dow Jones on May 25:

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)–Transocean Ltd. (RIG, RIGN.EB) said its shareholder-approved $1 billion dividend won’t affect the offshore-drilling contractor’s ability to meet its legal obligations relating to last month’s Deepwater Horizon rig accident.
The company’s statement comes the day after Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and 17 of his Democratic colleagues requested that the Department of Justice investigate the dividend.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, the senators argued the move by Transocean to distribute dividend payments to shareholders–approved by investors on May 14–could enhance the company’s protection from lawsuits and make it harder for those affected by the massive oil spill fouling the Gulf Shore to seek claims against the company, based in Zug, Switzerland.
“We are concerned that such action to quickly move money out of corporate coffers to individual investors may make it more difficult to pursue liability claims against the company,” Wyden and his colleagues wrote.
But Transocean said on Tuesday that, in addition to its ongoing operating revenue, it had insurance coverage for the rig and insurance for other claims made after the incident. The company has been in the spotlight since April 20, when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 workers. The rig sank two days later and thousands of barrels of oil a day continue to gusher out of a broken pipe on the sea floor. BP PLC (BP), which leased the rig and is responsible for the clean-up, is preparing to attempt a so-called top-kill procedure, after earlier attempts to stop the leak failed.
Transocean recommended in February to shareholders that it pay the Swiss franc equivalent of about $1 billion, or $3.11 a share, in a dividend that would be paid in four equal installments.