It's getting hard to keep up with Rio Tinto Limited's (ASX: RIO) scandals, fines and looming court cases.
Just last week Rio was fined more than £27 million by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for breaching the watchdog's disclosure and transparency rules.
The FCA accused Rio of failing to disclose the true value of its Mozambique coal assets, or Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique (RTCM), which Rio bought for US$3.7 billion and sold for US$50 million a few years later.
The FCA stated that Rio had encountered a number of stumbling blocks, such as political and cost issues, shortly after its purchase of the coal assets and should have carried out an impairment test and recognised the losses which should have been reported in half year 2012.
Rio agreed to settle with the FCA at an early stage and qualified for a 30% discount on the £39 million fine it was facing.
Essentially, the case demonstrates that Rio knew or ought to have known the value of its coal assets and as such the company acted poorly or, at best, was merely incompetent.
The next day, as was reported, the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Rio Tinto Limited and two former executives of fraud in relation to the coal scandal, which occurred around the same time as Rio's ill-fated Alcan acquisition.
Those two executives were Rio's former CEO Tom Albanese and its former CFO Guy Elliot.
Mr Elliot recently stood down from his board position with Royal Dutch Shell as the coal scandal fired up.
Although Rio decided to settle with the UK regulator, the company has sought to assure shareholders and the public that the US regulator doesn't have a case against the miner.
"The SEC has alleged in a civil complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York that Rio Tinto committed fraud by not accurately disclosing the value of RTCM and not impairing it when Rio Tinto published its 2011 year-end accounts in February 2012 or its interim results in August 2012," the company stated.
"Rio Tinto believes that the SEC case is unwarranted and that, when all the facts are considered by the court, or if necessary by a jury, the SEC's claims will be rejected."
So why did Rio settle with the UK's FCA?
Regardless, it doesn't end there.
Now US law firm Hagans Berman has launched a class action "alleging Rio Tinto and certain of its former executives violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934".
The law firm, on behalf of its clients, accuses the miner of making false or misleading statements or failing to disclose the true value of its Mozambique coal assets, to the detriment of shareholders.
Hagans Berman has a track record of defeating corporate giants in and out of court, including wins against big tobacco resulting in a US$206 billion payout, a settlement with Toyota worth US$1.6 billion and a settlement with Apple and major publishers worth $400 million.
Whether or not the class action is successful in terms of monetary value it seems Rio's reputation continues to cop a beating.
But it seems Rio's investors are a forgiving bunch.
The Rio Tinto share price closed on Tuesday at $69.39, up 35% from $51.23 a year ago.
The BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) share price has gone from $23.09 to close on Tuesday at $26.55, representing a yearly gain of 15%.
And the Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price has dropped about 2% in a year to close on Tuesday at $5.00.
