The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged mining giant Rio Tinto PLC and two of its former top executives with fraud, saying that they inflated the value of coal assets in Mozambique acquired for $3.7-billion and sold a few years later for $50-million (all figures U.S.). A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) also said on Tuesday that it had reached a settlement with Rio Tinto under which the company would pay a fine of 27 million pounds ($44.5-million) to settle claims that it breached accounting rules in connection with the Mozambique assets. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. Federal Court in Manhattan, the SEC said Rio Tinto, former chief executive officer Thomas Albanese and former chief financial officer Guy Elliott failed to follow accounting standards and company policies to accurately value and record the assets. The lawsuit centres on Rio Tinto's 2011 acquisition of explorer Riversdale Mining for $3.7-billion. Rio Tinto then learned that the acquisition would yield less coal, and of a lower quantity, than expected. Then, says the SEC, Rio Tinto concealed the problems.