A long term executive at mining giant Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) says he was left with no choice but to take the strongest legal action possible after he was sacked over an alleged £8.4mln African bribery scandal.
Alan Davies, who rose to the position of chief executive of energy and minerals at the behemoth, is reportedly liaising with employment law specialists.
Rio said today that the termination had been made after the "board reviewed the findings to date of an internal investigation into 2011 contractual arrangements with a consultant who provided advisory services on the Simandou project in Guinea".
Also fired was Legal & Regulatory Affairs Group executive Debra Valentine.
The firm had concluded that "the executives failed to maintain the standards expected of them under our global code of conduct"
Davies will be replaced by Bold Baatar, the firm revealed.
He reportedly had fought back saying that Rio had “no grounds” to fire him, that he had not been privy to Rio’s internal investigation report, nor seen any evidence of the reasons for his termination.
Davies has at one time been identified as one of the internal contenders to become chief executive.
Rio shares are today up 1.13% to stand at 2,997p.