Legal claims and appeals in BHP Billiton’s rollercoaster legal battle in Brazil are obscuring the size of the potential eventual payout, which is oscillating between a hoped-for $2.3-billion claim and the return of a suspended $6.2-billion – with the ghost of a monumental nine-times-bigger claim refusing to go away. “BHP Billiton has suffered a fresh setback in Brazil,” the Sydney Morning Herald said in a report quoting Shaw and Partners analyst Peter O’Connor as saying that, under Brazilian law, a large number of independent prosecutors are able to launch claims on behalf of the Brazilian people whenever they see fit.
