Brazilian court clears BHP, Vale and Samarco of charges in 2015 dam disaster
A court in Belo Horizonte ruled that state prosecutors failed to prove that "individual actions" directly contributed to the collapse of the dam.
Brazilian securities regulator CVM has opened two probes into Vale Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani’s conduct in the aftermath of a dam burst in late January that killed nearly 250 people, according to the CVM’s website.
Details of the investigations were not immediately available. Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico said at issue was Siani’s alleged failure to “fully and immediately” disclose information about the accident.
Valor reported that Siani has informed the regulator he plans to settle the cases, without giving details of a potential accord.
The CVM probes are the latest in a series of investigations by prosecutors and regulators into the circumstances surrounding the disaster, which happened less than four years after another deadly dam collapse in the same region.
One of the cases involved Vale’s failure to issue a statement before a news conference the company held on Feb. 12 that made some key disclosures surrounding the potential cause of the dam burst, Valor reported.
In the second case, Vale allegedly disclosed internally that it was partially halting activities at its Brucutu mine but failed to tell investors about the move until two days later, after reports of the closure had already pushed down shares, according to Valor.
A Vale spokeswoman declined to comment on the probes, saying its defenses to the charges were in the text of the probes themselves. The company did not immediately make Siani available for comment.
According to Valor, Vale in the first case said most of the points made during the press conference had previously been disclosed. In the second case, Siani’s defense said that only a select group of Vale employees were told about the Brucutu halt and that the company moved toward a wider disclosure as soon as it became clear that the information had been leaked.
(By Christian Plumb; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
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