Brazil prosecutors charge Vale, auditor over deadly dam collapse: official

BRUMADINHO, Brazil—Brazilian state prosecutors charged Vale SA’s former CEO Fabio Schvartsman and 10 others from the mining company with homicide Tuesday in an effort to hold it to account for last year’s dam collapse that killed 270 people.

Prosecutors for the state of Minas Gerais also leveled homicide charges at five individuals at Germany’s TÜV SÜD, the auditing company that certified the mine-waste dam as safe only months before it gave way.

All 16 individuals, as well as both companies as entities, were also charged with intentional homicide and environmental offenses.

The January 25 tailings dam rupture in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais spewed millions of tons of mining waste over houses and farmland in the country's worst industrial accident.

Vale and TUV SUD, which had certified the dam's stability, have been accused of environmental crimes, prosecutors said in a news conference.

TUV SUD said in a statement earlier Tuesday it "remains deeply saddened" by the disaster.

It noted, however, that the "real causes" of the collapse were yet to be determined.

(AFP /WSJ)