January 22,2020

Anna Murray 

On January 21 state prosecutors in Brazil charged the ex-boss of German mining Vale company and 15 others with intentional homicide and environmental offenses in a massive dam collapse on January 25, 2019, which killed 270 people.

Former Vale president Fabio Schvartsman and other seniors in Vale and the German and Austrian firm TUV SUD had been hired to assess the stability of dams in Brazil since November 2017. Prosecutors accused Vale and TUV SUD of promoting opaque risk management and issuing false reports on the stability of the dam located in the town of Brumadinho in the mineral-rich southeastern state of Minas Gerais. The tailings dam ruptured and poured million tons of mining waste over houses and farmland on January 25, 2019, which resulted in the country's worst industrial accident.

The prosecution will await a judge to accept the charges of intentional homicide and environmental offenses in order to proceed accordingly. In Brazil, the maximum penalty sentence for convicted intentional homicide could lead to 30 years in jail.

Photo:Webshot.