Prominent American Businessman Ira Rennert Faces Extradition to Peru
Ira Rennert’s House
Lima, Peru – American Ira Rennert, known forhis lavish lifestyle and operating companies that have polluted whole communities, may soon face an international arrest warrant followed by extradition to Peru if a judge has her way.
Rennert faces charges relating to alleged financial and business irregularities involving the La Oroya lead smelter, a notorious facility accused of poisoning thousands of children and adults living near the infamous complex. The facility is one of the most contaminated industrial sites on earth where local children were exposed to high levels of lead for decades.
Rennert’s lawyers have tried to prevent his return to Peru to face official questioning in his role in managing the La Oroya metallurgical complex. The Peruvian government claims Rennert’s company, the majority shareholder of Doe Run Peru (DRP), made billions of dollars in profits off of La Oroya and never kept agreements to clean-up the huge site.
Peruvian Judge Martha Flores’ Court ID
Peruvian Judge Martha Flores has compelled Rennert to answer charges that include filing false claims and defrauding the Peruvian government as well as undermining business confidence in Peru. Rennert has refused to come to Peru to appear before Judge Flores to answer her questions about the company.
Rennert did offer to answer Judge Flores’ questions in New York. Flores rejected Rennert’s request telling the industrialist’s lawyers that Peruvian law does not allow such a request. According to sources in the 39th Criminal Court of Lima, Rennert is required by Peruvian law to appear in person to answer the questions of the judicial authority. Otherwise, Judge Flores is legally entitled to ask for an international arrest warrant and begin the process of Rennert’s extradition to Peru.
Ira Rennert
According to the National Immigration Office, Ira Rennert first came to Peru on March 31, 1997, the year that he bought the La Oroya metallurgical complex, located in the Junín Region, from the government of Peru. (Rennert’s company also owns the Cobriza copper mine in the Huancavelica Province.)
Rennert last entered Peru on December 3, 2007. That year Doe Run Peru was cited by Peruvian authorities for failing to live up to an agreement to reduce environmental pollution at the facility. That failure began the process of the Peruvian Government liquidating Doe Run Peru.
Between 1997 and 2007, according to immigration records, Rennert came to Peru in his private jet on 32 occasions, when his company DRP did $1.4 billion (US) in business a year. Rennert first got control of Doe Run in what some current government officials consider a sweetheart deal orchestrated by the regime of Peru’s then president, Alberto Fujimori, who fled Peru in 2000 during a corruption scandal and was impeached.
On December 2, 2011, Judge Flores, the 39th Criminal Court of Lima, filed suit against Rennert and another senior DRP official, Albert Bruce Neil, after the Peruvian prosecutor Leoncio Paredes accused the two of offenses against trust and good faith in business, both crimes in Peru. They were also charged with false reporting in an administrative proceeding before a government agency.
The prosecutor accused Rennert and Neil of having built a network of companies that made fraudulent transactions to steal money from DRP and hiding financial information from other company shareholders.
La Oroya, Peru
Those affected by the alleged crimes attributed to Rennert and Neil are Cormin, a Peruvian subsidiary of commodities trader Trafigura Beheer, and other Peruvian minority shareholders of DRP, the company operating the La Oroya metallurgical complex. In April, the creditors of DRP sent the company into liquidation.
Judge Flores ordered Rennert and Neil to be present in the Lima court on January 3, 2012 to respond to the charges. But lawyers for Neil asked that he and Rennert be questioned not in Peru but New York State.
“We ask the judge that the questioning take place in New York because it’s where he lives and works – Ira Rennert. We did it based on the law allowing international judicial cooperation,” said Eduardo Alcócer, Rennert’s Peruvian lawyer.
On January 10, 2012, Judge Flores denied Rennert’s request to deliver his statement in New York with legal assistance from the United States. She then cited Rennert for the second time on March 8.
“As Judge Flores refused the request, we filed an appeal because we believe that the law allows Mr. Rennert to work with the cooperation of the U.S. justice system,” said his lawyer Alcócer.
One of the reasons the judge rejected the request is because Rennert and the company may seek summary and quick dismissals in the United States, and U.S. judicial cooperation is incompatible with “the terms Peruvian law established,” Flores wrote in the ruling. (The Renco Group, Inc., the parent company of Doe Run Peru, filed an international arbitration proceeding against the Peruvian government seeking damages of $800 million for allegedly violating a U.S.-Peru trade agreement.)
On May 21, 2012, the Fifth Criminal Court to Free Prisoners temporarily granted an appeal for Rennert and Neil and that judge ordered Judge Flores to reconsider the decision against Rennert and Neil. But on September 5, Judge Flores again ruled on the case and refused Rennert and Neil the opportunity to respond to questions in New York instead of Lima.
Judge Flores insists that there is no legal impediment that prevents them from giving testimony in Lima, according to sources from the office. ”The statement of the accused surrenders in person, out loud, before the magistrate and the local court,” the judge said in her written decision. Judge Flores warned Rennert and Neil that under Peruvian national law, if they do not comply and return to Peru to answer the court as ordered, such action “will result in extradition proceedings prescribed by law.”
According to sources in the office of Judge Flores, an international arrest order will be issued for Rennert and Neil, and Interpol will be informed. “Our laws do not distinguish between nationals and foreigners to comply with the court orders,” Judge Flores states in the ruling. Flores ruled:
“The nationality, residence or occupation of the accused does not mean as with national-Peru a cause to resort to other exceptional procedures for failure to appear (in court).” The judge dismissed Rennert’s argument as an invalid argument against his appearance in Peru that he was too busy in New York and could not travel because it would distract from his core activities.
Judge Flores flatly dismissed the idea that she should travel to New York to question Rennert and Neil because in Peru the defendants appear before the judge and not the other way around.
Rennert’s and Neil’s lawyer, Eduardo Alcócer, confirmed that the judge insists that his clients appear in Lima. “Judge Flores, indeed, insists [that] Neil [and] Rennert are present in her office. So again we appeal against this decision because we believe that it is unnecessary. Judge Flores wrongly interpreted the law,” Alcócer said. He believes there is no legal reason to require his clients to appear in Peru.
The case has now been handed over to the prosecution. It is expected the prosecutor’s office will support the position of Judge Flores. If so, Rennert will be subject to international arrest and fully accountable to Peruvian justice.
The Renco Group, Inc. gave $1 million to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
