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Reclusive billionaire Ira Rennert, owner of the largest estate in the Hamptons, could soon face the spotlight over alleged lead poisoning at a Peruvian mine – a lawsuit he has tried to get tossed for nearly two decades.
The 90-year-old founder of New York-based family holding company Renco is best known in New York circles for the massive, oceanfront property on the East End he purchased in the 1990s.
The compound at 281 Daniels Lane in Sagaponack – dubbed the “House that Ate the Hamptons” in the title of a book by legendary Page Six founder James Brady – has grown to include a 110,000-square-foot main house with 29 bedrooms and 39 bathrooms, as well as a 100-car garage.
In 2010, the Hungarian-born industrialist allegedly ran afoul of Southampton zoning officials after trying to add a 40th bathroom outdoors, according to Curbed Hamptons.
Rennert’s estate — most recently assessed at $425 million — features three swimming pools, two tennis courts, a 164-seat theater, a basketball court, a bowling alley and even a synagogue on its 63 acres, which abuts the Atlantic Ocean.
His ultra-luxurious playground is a continent — and worlds — away from the now-shuttered Peruvian mine that has sparked a legal saga spanning the presidential administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and soon-to-be Trump again.
The lawsuit was filed in 2007 against St. Louis-based Doe Run Resources, which is controlled by Renco, in Missouri state court on behalf of 17 Peruvian children.
It was lodged by a pair of nuns at The Saint Louis College for Public Health and Social Justice, which sent researchers to test local kids that lived near the mine before it was shut down in 2009.
The case was moved to federal court in Missouri in 2017 after being consolidated with 40 other cases against the parent company.
Rennert’s efforts to get the lawsuit tossed included support from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who filed a brief in the federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit last year, arguing the suit should be handled by courts in Peru.
Months later, a political action committee created to support Bailey’s 2024 reelection bid received a $50,000 check from Renco Group, the Missouri Independent reported. Bailey ended up winning the Missouri AG race last month.
The US Chamber of Commerce also weighed in on Rennert’s behalf last year, saying the case could set a terrible precedent for US companies with operations overseas.
Nonetheless, the judge in Missouri district court ruled in August that Rennert “was the controlling owner of all corporate Defendants” and gave the green light for the trial to move forward, according to court records.
Doe Run bought the smelting and refining complex, called the La Oroya Metallurgical Complex, from the Peruvian government in 1997. The plant mined for copper, lead, zinc and other metals, the suit says.
The complaint alleges that Doe Run failed to reduce lead emissions at the mine as required under the terms of an environmental remediation and management plan Renco signed with the South American country’s government, according to court documents.
One of the nuns behind the complaint, Sister Kate Reid, told The Post that many of the young children who lived near the plant still suffer from ailments that include sluggishness and rashes. Reid is acting as the Next Friend in the courts for some of the alleged victims who are still minors.
In 2007, she toured the Peruvian village near the smelting plant, where she met Priest Pedro Barreto, who had first flagged the toxic dangers at the mine.
“He said it was such a violation of humanity when blood is poisoned by lead. What is supposed to be life-giving is actually deadly,” Reid recalled of her conversation with Barreto, who was appointed cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
The St. Louis School of Public Health found through its study that 99% of children in La Oroya had blood levels of lead that can cause “psychological injuries, learning and other permanent disabilities,” according to the lawsuit.
“These children, who are now young adults, had among the highest blood lead levels ever recorded in the world,” Jerry Schlichter, the lawyer who has been handling the case for the past 17 years, told The Post.
If found guilty, Rennert and Renco could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, Schlichter said.
That figure could perhaps soar to more than $1 billion because of a similar case on behalf of another 1,000 Peruvians that is at an earlier stage in Missouri, according to Schlichter.
“The potential damages are very, very substantial,” Schlichter said. “It’s hard to comprehend a more punitive situation than this.”
In response, Renco spokesman Jim McCarthy vigorously denied any wrongdoing.
“The plaintiffs’ lawyers’ case is a complete fraud that includes coercing poor people, falsified medical records, bribery of public officials, and a total absence of evidence,” McCarthy alleged.
Rennert’s lawyers filed a request with the federal appeals court to delay the case. It was rejected in September.
On Nov. 27, he submitted a formal request with the US Supreme Court to review the case, a cert petition, according to a filing reviewed by The Post.
But the case can proceed to trial as early as the first half of next year unless the Supreme Court agrees to take up the case. No trial date has been set.
McCarthy went on to put the onus for any health issues on the Peruvian government.
“Our filings and the plaintiffs’ own experts’ testimony prove that Doe Run Peru did more to improve the facility in the 12 years of its tenure than the government of Peru and others had done in the prior 75 years of their operations, and through those improvements, costing over $300 million, Doe Run Peru dramatically reduced emissions in every category,” McCarthy said.
“The Peruvian government destroyed La Oroya, Doe Run Peru cleaned it up and the defendants are indemnified by Peru for these bogus claims.”
The Peruvian government has challenged that indemnity claim and since 2016 has been in arbitration proceedings with Renco in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands.
Rennert has run into legal hot water before as he built his fortune through leveraged buyouts of natural resource businesses.
Doe Run Resources, North America’s largest lead producer, was hit with a lawsuit over its smelting plant in Herculaneum, Mo., after tests revealed that more than half of the children living near the smelter had enough lead in their blood to cause brain damage, Mother Jones reported in 2012.
The plant was found liable for violating the Missouri Clean Water Law in 2020 and was shuttered as part of an undisclosed settlement agreement, according to court records. The judge in the case found that Doe Run improperly obstructed discovery and was fined more than $400,000, Schlichter told Mining.com.
In 2015, a New York jury ordered Rennert to pay $118 million to the creditors of Magnesium Corp. of America after he was sued for allegedly looting the company and forcing it into bankruptcy to fund the building of his Hamptons state, called Fair Field.
Rennert’s legal team also alleged in the Nov. 27 filing to the US Supreme Court that Peruvian law enforcement uncovered evidence that there were irregularities in the way the plaintiffs recruited members including forgery and coercion.
Schlichter refuted those claims.
“Their reference to ‘irregularities’ is just another attempted distraction after the US judge found that they obstructed the court process and heavily sanctioned them,” Schlichter said responding to the Nov. 27 Supreme Court filing.
“There’s no evidence of misconduct by our firm or our clients, while there’s overwhelming evidence of Doe Run and Ira Rennert exposing children to some of the highest blood lead levels in the world.”
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