Reclusive billionaire Ira Rennert, proprietor of the biggest property within the Hamptons, may quickly face the highlight over alleged lead poisoning at a Peruvian mine – a lawsuit he has tried to get tossed for practically 20 years.
The 90-year-old founding father of New York-based household holding firm Renco is greatest identified in New York circles for the huge, oceanfront property on the East Finish he bought within the Nineties.
The compound at 281 Daniels Lane in Sagaponack – dubbed the “House that Ate the Hamptons” within the title of a ebook by legendary Web page Six founder James Brady – has grown to incorporate a 110,000-square-foot predominant home with 29 bedrooms and 39 bogs, in addition to a 100-car storage.
In 2010, the Hungarian-born industrialist allegedly ran afoul of Southampton zoning officers after making an attempt so as to add a fortieth lavatory outdoor, in response to Curbed Hamptons.
Rennert’s property — most just lately assessed at $425 million — options three swimming swimming pools, two tennis courts, a 164-seat theater, a basketball court docket, a bowling alley and even a synagogue on its 63 acres, which abuts the Atlantic Ocean.
His ultra-luxurious playground is a continent — and worlds — away from the now-shuttered Peruvian mine that has sparked a authorized saga spanning the presidential administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and soon-to-be Trump once more.
The lawsuit was filed in 2007 towards St. Louis-based Doe Run Assets, which is managed by Renco, in Missouri state court docket on behalf of 17 Peruvian youngsters.
It was lodged by a pair of nuns at The Saint Louis Faculty for Public Well being and Social Justice, which despatched researchers to check native children that lived close to the mine earlier than it was shut down in 2009.
The case was moved to federal court docket in Missouri in 2017 after being consolidated with 40 different circumstances towards the dad or mum firm.
Rennert’s efforts to get the lawsuit tossed included assist from Missouri Lawyer Common Andrew Bailey, who filed a quick within the federal Court docket of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit final yr, arguing the go well with must be dealt with by courts in Peru.
Months later, a political motion committee created to assist Bailey’s 2024 reelection bid acquired a $50,000 test from Renco Group, the Missouri Unbiased reported. Bailey ended up profitable the Missouri AG race final month.
The US Chamber of Commerce additionally weighed in on Rennert’s behalf final yr, saying the case may set a horrible precedent for US corporations with operations abroad.
Nonetheless, the decide in Missouri district court docket dominated in August that Rennert “was the controlling owner of all corporate Defendants” and gave the inexperienced mild for the trial to maneuver ahead, in response to court docket information.
Doe Run purchased the smelting and refining advanced, referred to as the La Oroya Metallurgical Complicated, from the Peruvian authorities in 1997. The plant mined for copper, lead, zinc and different metals, the go well with says.
The grievance alleges that Doe Run failed to cut back lead emissions on the mine as required underneath the phrases of an environmental remediation and administration plan Renco signed with the South American nation’s authorities, in response to court docket paperwork.
One of many nuns behind the grievance, Sister Kate Reid, instructed The Submit that lots of the younger youngsters who lived close to the plant nonetheless undergo from illnesses that embrace sluggishness and rashes. Reid is appearing because the Subsequent Pal within the courts for a few of the alleged victims who’re nonetheless minors.
In 2007, she toured the Peruvian village close to the smelting plant, the place she met Priest Pedro Barreto, who had first flagged the poisonous risks on the mine.
“He said it was such a violation of humanity when blood is poisoned by lead. What is supposed to be life-giving is actually deadly,” Reid recalled of her dialog with Barreto, who was appointed cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
The St. Louis College of Public Well being discovered by means of its examine that 99% of kids in La Oroya had blood ranges of lead that may trigger “psychological injuries, learning and other permanent disabilities,” in response to the lawsuit.
“These children, who are now young adults, had among the highest blood lead levels ever recorded in the world,” Jerry Schlichter, the lawyer who has been dealing with the case for the previous 17 years, instructed The Submit.
If discovered responsible, Rennert and Renco may very well be on the hook for a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in fines, Schlichter mentioned.
That determine may maybe soar to greater than $1 billion due to an analogous case on behalf of one other 1,000 Peruvians that’s at an earlier stage in Missouri, in response to Schlichter.
“The potential damages are very, very substantial,” Schlichter mentioned. “It’s hard to comprehend a more punitive situation than this.”
In response, Renco spokesman Jim McCarthy vigorously denied any wrongdoing.
“The plaintiffs’ lawyers’ case is a complete fraud that includes coercing poor people, falsified medical records, bribery of public officials, and a total absence of evidence,” McCarthy alleged.
Rennert’s attorneys filed a request with the federal appeals court docket to delay the case. It was rejected in September.
On Nov. 27, he submitted a proper request with the US Supreme Court docket to evaluate the case, a cert petition, in response to a submitting reviewed by The Submit.
However the case can proceed to trial as early as the primary half of subsequent yr except the Supreme Court docket agrees to take up the case. No trial date has been set.
McCarthy went on to place the onus for any well being points on the Peruvian authorities.
“Our filings and the plaintiffs’ own experts’ testimony prove that Doe Run Peru did more to improve the facility in the 12 years of its tenure than the government of Peru and others had done in the prior 75 years of their operations, and through those improvements, costing over $300 million, Doe Run Peru dramatically reduced emissions in every category,” McCarthy mentioned.
“The Peruvian government destroyed La Oroya, Doe Run Peru cleaned it up and the defendants are indemnified by Peru for these bogus claims.”
The Peruvian authorities has challenged that indemnity declare and since 2016 has been in arbitration proceedings with Renco within the Everlasting Court docket of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands.
Rennert has run into authorized sizzling water earlier than as he constructed his fortune by means of leveraged buyouts of pure useful resource companies.
Doe Run Assets, North America’s largest lead producer, was hit with a lawsuit over its smelting plant in Herculaneum, Mo., after assessments revealed that greater than half of the kids dwelling close to the smelter had sufficient lead of their blood to trigger mind injury, Mom Jones reported in 2012.
The plant was discovered responsible for violating the Missouri Clear Water Regulation in 2020 and was shuttered as a part of an undisclosed settlement settlement, in response to court docket information. The decide within the case discovered that Doe Run improperly obstructed discovery and was fined greater than $400,000, Schlichter instructed Mining.com.
In 2015, a New York jury ordered Rennert to pay $118 million to the collectors of Magnesium Corp. of America after he was sued for allegedly looting the corporate and forcing it into chapter 11 to fund the constructing of his Hamptons state, referred to as Truthful Discipline.
Rennert’s authorized group additionally alleged within the Nov. 27 submitting to the US Supreme Court docket that Peruvian regulation enforcement uncovered proof that there have been irregularities in the best way the plaintiffs recruited members together with forgery and coercion.
Schlichter refuted these claims.
“Their reference to ‘irregularities’ is just another attempted distraction after the US judge found that they obstructed the court process and heavily sanctioned them,” Schlichter mentioned responding to the Nov. 27 Supreme Court docket submitting.
“There’s no evidence of misconduct by our firm or our clients, while there’s overwhelming evidence of Doe Run and Ira Rennert exposing children to some of the highest blood lead levels in the world.”
