The former CEO and CFO of Rio Tinto have been charged with fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), after allegedly inflating the value of its ill-fated Mozambique coal mine acquisition. Ex-chief executive Thomas Albanese and former chief financial officer Guy Elliott, along with Rio Tinto, face charges of failing to follow accounting standards and company policies to accurately value and record its assets. The two executives were in situ during Rio Tinto’s $3.7bn (£2.8bn) acquisition of Mozambique coal assets in 2011, which were then sold on for just $50m in 2014. The SEC alleges that problems with the operation were kept hidden, allowing Rio Tinto to release misleading financial statements prior to a multi-billio