A year after a dam burst killed at least 259 people, prosecutors accused company executives of covering up safety concerns.

By Ernesto Londoño and Manuela Andreoni, NY Times

RIO DE JANEIRO — Prosecutors in Brazil on Tuesday charged the former president of the Brazil-based mining giant Vale and 15 other people with homicide, faulting them for negligence in a dam disaster that killed at least 259 people a year ago.

Those charged include Vale’s former chief executive, Fabio Schvartsman, and other senior officials employed by Vale and by a German firm hired to assess the stability of its dams. They were also charged with environmental crimes, as were the companies.

The announcement came days before the first anniversary of one of the deadliest mining disasters in years.

The dam in Brumadinho, in the state of Minas Gerais, was built to hold waste from an iron ore mine. When it burst on Jan. 25, 2019, the company cafeteria and other facilities were buried in a torrent of mud.

On Tuesday, one of the state prosecutors who brought the charges, William Garcia Pinto Coelho, said Vale had executives systematically hide evidence of safety concerns and retaliated against auditing firms that flagged problems.

And the German firm Tüv Süd, Mr. Pinto Coelho said, was compensated for knowingly presenting Vale with misleading reports about the stability of its dams.

Prosecutors said they had found evidence that Vale officials knew Brumadinho’s dam was at risk since at least November 2017. It was on an internal list of 10 dams at risk of bursting, they learned.

“The goal of these omissions, ultimately, was to avoid any negative impacts to Vale’s reputation that could affect its market value,” Mr. Pinto Coelho said.

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