Coal Age Magazine - For nearly 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.
Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/333467
Also charged are Gary Griffith, with making a materially false state- ment to federal and state law enforcement when interviewed in the Mountain Laurel kickback scheme investigation; Stephen Herndon, the former Mountain Laurel warehouse manager and now owner of Tri-State Mine Service, with "structuring" a cash withdrawal from a local bank; and Scott Ellis, Herndon's business partner in Tri-State, with structuring a cash withdrawal from a local bank account. Alvis Porter, owner and operator of Quality Oil, doing business as Southern Construction of Logan, which provided construction services at the Mountain Laurel Mining Complex, has also been charged with failing to collect, account for, and pay over trust fund taxes of an employee. David Herndon has been charged with engag- ing in an unlawful monetary transaction of criminally derived prop- erty of a value greater than $10,000. Ronald Barnette is accused of making a materially false state- ment to federal and state law enforcement investigating the Mountain Laurel kickback scheme, and Gary Roeher was charged with filing a false tax return for his company, CM Supply. Additionally, Chadwick Lusk was charged with honest services mail fraud. Lusk, while the purchasing agent at Mountain Laurel, defrauded Arch Coal of its right to honest services by receiving ille- gal cash kickbacks in a crib block kickback scheme. Finally, James Evans II, owner and operator of Baisden Recyling, which had a contract with Arch to recycle scrap metal from the complex, has been charged with conspiracy to commit honest ser- vices fraud. None of the employees are still with Arch, Goodwin said. "This kind of pay-to-play scheme hurts honest coal-industry vendors who refuse to pay bribes as a way to get customers," Goodwin said. "The corrupt way that these defendants did business should be a thing of the past. It's bad for the economy and, ulti- mately, bad for consumers." Arch officials previously reached out to Booth's office for help investigating possible misconduct; despite speculation at the time on the nature of the probe, the producer did not disclose any details. On May 31, the company said in a statement that the agency was quick to respond to the issue. "While it was extremely disappointing to find that former employees had failed to live up to our trust in them, we are pleased and relieved to have this issue behind us," the company said. n e w s c o n t i n u e d T O P 1 0 C O A L - P R O D U C I N G S T A T E S Turkish Authorities Begin Investigation into Soma Mine Disaster Rescuers recovered the remaining bodies on Saturday, May 17, bring- ing the death toll for the Soma mine disaster to 301. The investigation into what caused the deadliest disaster in Turkish mining history con- tinues, the Natural Disaster and Emergency Coordination Directorate said. Authorities detained 25 people for questioning and charged sev- eral with negligence including General Manager Ramazan Dogru and the mine's Operations Manager Akin Celik, according to Turkey's Dogan news agency. Controversy over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's response to the tragedy refuses to blow over. Czech Billionaire Agrees to Restructure NWR Debt Billionaire Zdenek Bakala agreed to restructure the debt of Czech coal miner New World Resources (NWR), doubling down on a company that, in its heyday, made him one of the country's richest men, according to Bloomberg . Bakala's BXR Group pledged to provide 185 million euros ($252 million) of additional capital. If approved, the deal will help cut NWR's debt to 450 million euros from 775 million euros and extend debt maturity to 2020. The restructuring agreement comes after six consecutive quarters of losses for NWR, which has suffered from a continuous slump in coal prices and pressure from the Czech govern- ment to halt a plan to close its money-losing Paskov mine. In April, NWR agreed to keep the mine operating until 2017. It employs 3,000 workers and lost $80 million last year. Losses Mount for Griffin in Australia The West Australian reported that concerns about the solvency of embattled Collie coal miner Griffin have deepened after full-year results showed its losses continued to mount. Griffin's Indian own- ers have laid bare how desperate the company's financial position had become. According to results posted with the Indian stock exchange by Lanco Infratech, Griffin's parent company, the Collie miner's losses ballooned to A$76 million in the 12 months to March 31 from A$19.3 million loss in 2012-2013. Driving the result was a 29% drop in revenue, including a 65% fall in the final quarter, as Griffin struggled with bad weather, failing equipment and deterio- rating coal quality. Vale Casts Doubt on Mozambique's Coal Export Target Pedro Gutemburg, the new chairman of Vale-Mozambique, the local subsidiary of the Brazilian mining giant, Vale, has cast doubt on the frequently quoted figure that Mozambique could, in the medium term, be exporting 100 million metric tons (mt) of coal a year. Gutemburg said in an interview published in the Maputo daily, Noticias , this was an extremely ambitious target. What would deter- mine how much coal Mozambique mines and exports is the existence of a market, and whether Mozambique is competitive in that market, Gutemburg said. "The world market for coking coal is 300 million mt a year. Australia, which is the largest producer, has 160 million mt, and there are other producers such as Canada, the United States and Russia, with about 40 million mt," he said. "It's no good pro- ducing 100 million mt of coal, if you have nowhere to sell it." Deutsche Bank Refuses to Fund Coal Port in Australia Economic Times reported that Deutsche Bank has refused to fund the (in Thousand Short Tons) Week Ending (5/31/14) 2014 2013 % Change Wyoming 158,604 154,929 2.4 West Virginia 49,547 49,751 -0.4 35,876 34,867 2.9 Pennsylvania 22,652 23,732 -4.6 Illinois 20,795 23,300 -10.7 Montana 16,673 15,995 4.2 Texas 16,640 16,505 0.8 Indiana 16,470 15,926 3.4 Ohio 11,929 12,025 -0.8 North Dakota 11,319 11,624 -2.6 U.S. Total 407,845 407,929 *0 Continued on p. 6... June 2014 www.coalage.com 5 W O R L D N E W S ¸ ˛ ˝ ¸ * Absolute percentage less than 0.05. CA_pg04-19_V5_CA_pg06-23 6/17/14 3:08 PM Page 5