U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 25898 / November 21, 2023
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Rio Tinto et al., No. 1:17-CV-7994 (S.D.N.Y. filed Oct. 17, 2017)
SEC Obtains Final Judgments Against Rio Tinto and Former CEO
On November 20, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered final consent judgments against Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited (collectively, “Rio Tinto”) and Rio Tinto’s former CEO Thomas Albanese. The entry of the consent judgments resolves all claims as to Rio Tinto and Albanese arising out of the SEC’s October 17, 2017 complaint, which alleged, among other things, that certain of Rio Tinto’s public filings contained misleading statements about the value of its Mozambican coal assets.
Without admitting or denying the allegations of the SEC’s complaint, Rio Tinto consented to the entry of a final judgment permanently restraining and enjoining it from violating Sections 13(a) and 13(b)(2)(A) of the Exchange Act and Rules 12b-20 and 13a-16 thereunder, ordering it to pay a civil penalty of $28 million, and requiring it to retain an independent consultant to review and evaluate its compliance with accounting standards and to cooperate in the SEC’s ongoing litigation against Rio Tinto’s former CFO Guy Elliott. Without admitting or denying the allegations of the SEC’s complaint, Thomas Albanese consented to the entry of a final judgment permanently restraining and enjoining him from violating Section 13(b)(5) of the Exchange Act and Rule 13b2-1 thereunder, requiring him to cooperate in the SEC’s ongoing litigation, and ordering him to pay a civil penalty of $50,000.
The SEC’s litigation was conducted by Gregory Miller, Dean Conway, Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez, Emily Parise, and John Timmer, and supervised by Melissa Armstrong. The SEC’s investigation was conducted and supervised by D. Mark Cave, Melissa Hodgman, and Jeffrey Weiss.