Ira Rennert was a board member of Integrated Resources that became infamous for junk bond swindler Michael Milken, who raised $2 billion through junk bonds. Integrated Resources collapsed amid scandal and defaulted on $1 billion of bond debt in May 1989, but Ira Rennert remained free of charges.
Ira Rennert continued the junk bond swindle to finance acquisitions for the Renco Group. Rennert acquired the shares of struggling companies and financed the acquisition by issuing junk bonds.
Rennert paid substantial dividends out of Renco to himself.
In 1989, Renco acquired the largest magnesium producer in the US - Magnesium Corp. in Utah. Magnesium Corp refines magnesium from the water of the Great Salt Lake using chemicals.
In 1996, Renco established Renco Metals, Inc. as a holding company for Magnesium Corp and issued $150 million in bonds.
Just like WCI Steel, which was controlled by Ira Rennert, the company paid Renco $90 million in dividends by the year end.
Toxic heavy metals from Magnesium Corp - like arsenic, cadmium and lead - rained down as fine dust on the Herculaneum community in Missouri.
In 2001, the Department of Justice filed charges against Magnesium Corp for violating the hazardous waste law, and noted that Rennert’s removal of money from Magnesium Corp, was “
leaving the companies insolvent and unable to pay their bills”.
The court case went on until 17 August 2010, when the Court of Appeals ruled that the Magnesium facility in Rowley, Utah was illegally disposing waste.
In 1997, the corrupt Peruvian government sold their government owned smelter in La Oroya to the Rennert controlled Doe Run.
Two million pounds of contamination were spewing out of those chimneys every single day. The contamination (including lead) became trapped between narrow canyon walls creating a huge gas chamber, and fell like rain on every inch of the city. That resulted in over 99% of the city’s 12,000 children having lead levels high above US standards. The people face the risk of cancer at 2,000 times the normal rate.
After 10 years, the Blacksmith Institute published that La Oroya was among the top 10 of most polluted places. Rennert responded by splitting the La Oroya operation off from Doe Run:
https://talpiottalk.com/2018/04/20/t...eborg-rennert/
Connect With Us