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Mr Varley

MELBOURNE. — The string of controversies involving senior members of Rio Tinto has continued, with the mining giant losing its fourth high-ranking figure in less than a year.

Rio Tinto yesterday said it had accepted the immediate resignation of John Varley, just hours after he was charged with fraud by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office.

Mr Varley’s sudden departure also has potential ramifications for the company’s search for a new chairman, given the former Barclays chief executive was ­leading the miner’s search for a ­replacement for outgoing chair Jan du Plessis.

Mr Varley is among four former Barclays executives who have been charged over a mammoth capital raising the bank undertook with Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund during the global financial crisis in June and October 2008. He has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of providing unlawful financial assistance.

He is the latest in a series of senior directors and executives to depart Rio in unusual circumstances, thinning out the company’s pool of directors ahead of Mr du Plessis’ looming departure.

Last November, Rio terminated the contracts of energy and minerals chief executive Alan Davies and regulatory affairs group executive Debra Valentine following the company’s internal investigation into payments linked to company’s efforts in Guinea.

The Guinea controversy, which centres on millions of dollars in payments made to a consultant close to the country’s president, has also prompted Rio to freeze bonus payments to former chief executive Sam Walsh.

Back in February, the company also announced that Anne Lauvergeon would step down from the board after just three years of service. The former chief executive of French nuclear giant Areva had earlier been investigated by French authorities in a case linked to Areva’s disastrous 2007 acquisition of a Canadian uranium miner. She had reportedly been questioned over allegations she presented and published false accounts.

Despite the controversy surrounding Mr Varley, Rio chairman Mr du Plessis was effusive in his praise for his departing colleague. “I am very grateful for John’s outstanding contribution over the five or so years he has been on the board. The board holds him in the highest regard and will miss his valuable insight,” Mr du Plessis said in a statement. “Personally, I am not only ­losing a senior independent director, but a close colleague, whose wisdom and support I am going to miss tremendously.”

Meanwhile, Mr Walsh has joined the board of Japanese ­industrial giant Mitsui — his first corporate appointment since his departure from Rio. Rio said it would announce the appointment of a new senior independent director to replace Mr Varley in due course. — The Australian.