Brazil's Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) is investigating the conduct of Vale executives.

247 The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) is investigating the conduct of Vale's president, Fabio Schvartsman, its statutory directors, and the company's 12 board members. The local authority wants to know if the executives and board members were negligent regarding the dam's safety before the catastrophe. This is the first time in history that an environmental crime, still under investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office, has given rise to a process within the local authority concerning the administrators as individuals.

The Valor newspaper report highlights that "if the If the investigation results in charges, these will be the first for administrators after Law No. 13.506, which increased the penalties imposed by the CVM (Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission). The adoption of the new values ​​has not yet been regulated, but since the events occurred after the law was enacted in 2017, they can be applied. In the draft dealing with the matter, the base penalty for breach of fiduciary duties is R$ 20 million, an amount that may change due to mitigating or aggravating circumstances.

And it adds: "The CVM (Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission) can disqualify a company from operating in the market for a period that has been extended from 5 to up to 20 years. Furthermore, it can apply more than one penalty to the same infraction, that is, disqualify and impose a fine. It is up to the regulatory body to investigate the damages associated with the tragedy that impact the company and its shareholders and creditors. It is not within its purview to investigate and punish environmental crimes."