U.S. Court Dismisses Rio Tinto Lawsuit Against Vale
November 20 2015 - 12:24PM
Dow Jones News
By Stephen Dockery
A U.S. District Court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by Rio Tinto
PLC alleging that Vale SA conspired with an Israeli billionaire to
take Rio Tinto's mining concessions in West Africa, with the court
finding the events were outside the statute of limitations.
The civil suit by the London-based mining company alleged that
Brazilian mining company Vale worked with Israeli billionaire
Benjamin Steinmetz and his mining company BSG Resources Ltd.
starting in December 2008 to illegally take Rio Tinto's mining
rights in Guinea.
Judge Richard Berman in the Southern District of New York
decided Rio Tinto's suit came too far after the alleged misconduct
occurred to seek damages. He wrote the "claim is outside of the
four-year civil RICO statute of limitations and is, therefore,
time-barred."
Jonathan Blackman from law firm Cleary Gottlieb, representing
Vale, described the suit as "an effort by a competitor to take
advantage of the corruption scandal in Guinea."
"It's gratifying the court saw through that and agreed with us
that as a legal claim the case had no merit," said Mr.
Blackman.
Rio Tinto and BSG Resources weren't immediately available for
comment.
The case revolved around the high-stakes and heavily scrutinized
acquisition of iron ore mining concessions from the government of
Guinea. An investigation carried out by the Guinean government said
BSG Resources had obtained the rights improperly. BSG said
previously there "is no evidence linking BSGR and its employees to
corruption in Guinea."
In the civil lawsuit Rio Tinto claimed bribes were paid to
government officials to win the lucrative concessions. The suit
also alleged Vale engaged in a corporate betrayal to help Mr.
Steinmetz's company take the concessions from Rio Tinto.
BSG Resources and Vale said those claims had no merit.
Write to Stephen Dockery at stephen.dockery@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 20, 2015 12:09 ET (17:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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