Rio Tinto to pay $28m fine to settle US SEC fraud case
Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining companies, agreed to pay a $28-million fine to settle a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit that accused it of fraud in handling a failed investment in a Mozambique coal project.
The settlement disclosed on Friday in Manhattan federal court would end a civil lawsuit filed in October 2017, and requires approval by US District Judge Analisa Torres.
Rio Tinto also agreed not to violate recordkeeping and reporting provisions of federal securities laws, and to retain an independent consultant for two years to ensure it properly accounts for asset writedowns.
Former CE Tom Albanese agreed to pay a $50 000 civil fine to settle related SEC claims. Neither he nor Rio Tinto admitted wrongdoing.
Rio Tinto confirmed the settlement but declined additional comment. Albanese's lawyer James Loonam declined to comment.
Former Rio Tinto CFO Guy Elliott remains a defendant, and his lawyer on Friday asked Torres to dismiss the remaining SEC claims because they could not be proven.
The defendants had been accused of deceiving investors about the value of Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique (RTCM), which the Anglo-Australian company purchased in 2011 for $3.7-billion through a takeover of the former Riversdale Mining.
According to the SEC, Rio Tinto was later able to raise more than $5.5-billion from unsuspecting US fixed-income investors by overvaluing the coal assets, despite an internal assessment that the assets were worth negative $680-million.
The regulator said Albanese intended to mislead investors in 2012 by describing the Moatize Basin, where RTCM was located, as a world-class basin coal deposit and long-term growth opportunity.
Rio Tinto took a more than $3-billion writedown for Mozambique in January 2013. It sold the assets in late 2014 for $50-million.
In a letter to Torres, Elliott's lawyer Theodore Wells noted that neither of the remaining claims against his client alleges fraud.
"It is virtually unprecedented for the SEC to file with great fanfare fraud claims against an issuer such as Rio Tinto, only to settle for technical, non-fraud reporting and recordkeeping violations," Wells wrote.
The case is SEC v Rio Tinto Plc et al, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 17-07994.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation