Mining firm faces probe

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.

DENVER -- Federal authorities are investigating allegations that Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. rigged a Peruvian court decision to gain control of a gold mine.

The Justice Department subpoenaed company documents related to the allegations, which span 1994 to 1999, in February, company spokesman Doug Hock said Monday. He said Newmont is cooperating.

Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Denver, declined to comment.

In a suit filed last year in U.S. District Court in Denver, French businessman Patrick Maugein claimed Newmont defamed him to win control of the Yanacocha mine in Peru.

Peruvian authorities, including the country's attorney general, have investigated the charges already, Hock said.

"There have been four inquiries in Peru already, and no evidence of wrongdoing was found," he said.

The suit alleged the company paid Peru's former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, to bribe and extort Peruvian judges in Newmont's bid for Yanacocha.

Newmont has asked U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch to dismiss the suit, saying Maugein has no standing to sue in Colorado. Maugein, a former bullfighter who lives in London, has made millions trading in oil, shipping, mining and other businesses.

In a separate case last year, a Denver District Court judge ruled that more than 1,000 Peruvians who sued Newmont in Colorado had no right to a hearing here. The judge said the suit should be heard in Peru.

The plaintiffs in that case, who say they were injured when mercury spilled from a truck near Yanacocha, have appealed the decision in the Colorado Court of Appeals.