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RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian police said a catastrophic dam failure last year was the result of mining company Samarco Mineração SA’s attempts to expand the structure too quickly without proper monitoring.
Police in Minas Gerais state on Tuesday said that they will seek charges of “qualified homicide” for the deaths of 19 people following the disaster, and are requesting arrest warrants for six Samarco officials and one engineer at consultancy Vogbr Recursos Hídricos & Geotecnica Ltda. Among those accused was former Samarco Chief Executive Ricardo Vescovi, who stepped down in January to prepare his defense after federal police named him in a probe into environmental crimes.
The accusations leveled Tuesday have no exact equivalent in the U.S. legal system and fall a step short of formal charges, which in Brazil can be filed only by prosecutors. Qualified homicide is more serious than the Brazilian version of manslaughter and carries sentences of 12 to 30 years, the maximum amount of time that Brazilian law allows prisoners to be detained.
Considered Brazil’s worst-ever environmental calamity, the collapse of Samarco’s so-called Fundão tailings dam on Nov. 5, 2015, released a tsunami of mine waste that flowed hundreds of miles from the hills of Minas Gerais to the Atlantic Ocean, destroying everything in its path. Neither Samarco nor its parent companies — global mining giants BHP Billiton Ltd. BHP, -2.56% of Australia and Vale SA VALE, -3.21% of Brazil — have said what caused the accident.
