By Luciana Magalhaes and Samantha Pearson
BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- Brazilian police announced criminal
charges against Vale SA and its German safety auditor, TÜV SÜD,
over the miner's dam collapse in January, the world's deadliest in
more than half a century.
In the first charges following the tragedy, police formally
accused seven individuals from Vale and six employees from TÜV SÜD,
for covering up structural dangers at the dam during safety audits
last year, only months before it ruptured, killing 270 people.
Vale said in an email that it won't comment until after studying
Friday's police report, adding that the company and its employees
will continue to contribute to the investigation and will respond
to the accusations in due time.
A spokeswoman for TÜV SÜD declined to comment on the
charges.
The accused from Vale were all technical workers, managers and
engineers; none of the company's directors were named.
However, the chief police investigator on the case, Luiz Augusto
Pessoa Nogueira, said Friday that authorities are still
investigating the role of directors in other crimes related to the
disaster, lambasting the miner for not cordoning off the dam and
evacuating workers once problems in its structure became
apparent.
"I don't know if the environmental tragedy could have been
avoided, but the human tragedy could have been," said Mr. Nogueira,
who is leading the federal police's probe into the collapse, which
occurred in Brazil's southeastern town of Brumadinho. "Vale showed
no interest in closing down the dam," he said during a press
conference Friday.
While Vale was under pressure from shareholders to prove its
dams were all stable, the miner's employees also earned bonuses if
they could prove the safety of the structures, Mr. Nogueira
said.
Brazilian authorities investigating the case have told The Wall
Street Journal they are preparing further charges, including
possibly for homicide and manslaughter, against individuals at both
Vale and TÜV SÜD, as well as more legal action against the
companies. Both Vale and TÜV SÜD were formally accused in the
charges Friday, as well as 13 employees.
Under Brazilian law, police can only formally accuse suspects,
while it is up to prosecutors to file the charges before a
judge.
Mr. Nogueira said the TÜV SÜD employees accused in the charges
contributed to safety audits in June and September last year that
attested to the dam's stability, even though they harbored concerns
about the structure's safety.
"TÜV SÜD wanted to keep working for Vale," said Mr. Nogueira,
alleging that inspectors at the German group declared the dam to be
safe for fear of losing contracts with Vale, a major client.
In the days after the disaster in late January, the Journal
reported that TÜV SÜD worked for Vale both as a consultant and an
independent safety evaluator of the dam, raising questions among
experts over potential conflict of interest. The Journal
subsequently reported that employees at Vale and TÜV SÜD knew for
months of dangerous conditions at the dam but that TÜV SÜD
employees certified it as safe anyway, worried about losing
business with Vale.
Mr. Nogueira said the individuals named Friday stand accused of
the crimes of false representation. Police allege that the
certificates produced by TÜV SÜD to attest to the stability of the
dam were issued fraudulently at the behest of Vale employees.
In police testimony reviewed by the Journal, Makoto Namba, a
senior engineering inspector at TÜV SÜD who signed off on the dam's
September audit, told police he felt pressured by a Vale manager,
Alexandre Campanha, to do so. Mr. Namba and Mr. Campanha were among
those formally accused Friday.
Augusto de Arruda Botelho, an attorney for TÜV SÜD's Mr. Namba
and two other employees at the German group named in the charges,
said his clients denied wrongdoing. "The report presented by the
federal police failed to interpret basic concepts about dam
engineering and arrived, therefore, at an incorrect conclusion," he
said.
Mr. Campanha has denied wrongdoing, saying he didn't put
pressure Mr. Namba to approve the dam. A lawyer for Mr. Campanha
couldn't be reached for comment.
Police also accused Chris-Peter Meier, a director in Germany for
TÜV SÜD, in the charges, as they said his colleagues in Brazil
consulted him about the dam's certification. Mr. Meier couldn't be
reached for comment.
The crime of false representation can carry a prison sentence of
up to six years in Brazil when related to some cases of
environmental damage. As police believe the crime was committed
three times, the accused could face up to about 18 years in jail if
the charges are filed and accepted by a judge, said Mr.
Nogueira.
Friday's announcement comes ahead of next week's eight-month
anniversary of the disaster, the most deadly mine-waste dam
collapse anywhere in the world since 1966. On Jan. 25, a sunny
Friday, the dam holding mining waste in Brumadinho suddenly
collapsed, sending a tsunami of mud down the valley at speeds of up
to 50 miles an hour, obliterating the mine's canteen as workers sat
down to lunch. Most of the 270 people who died were Vale's own
workers or contractors.
The dam's collapse came just over three years after a similar
dam, jointly owned by Vale and BHP Group Ltd., about 80 miles away
also collapsed, killing 19 people in what authorities said was one
of the worst environmental disasters in Brazilian history.
In May, an investigation by the Journal found that several of
Vale's own workers at the mine in Brumadinho warned their bosses
the dam was about to collapse. Supervisors brushed aside those
concerns, in some cases citing fears about extra expenditures.
--Alistair MacDonald in London and Jeffrey T. Lewis in São Paulo
contributed to this article.
Write to Luciana Magalhaes at Luciana.Magalhaes@wsj.com and
Samantha Pearson at samantha.pearson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 20, 2019 15:18 ET (19:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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