Butte Mining PLC v. Smith

Butte Mining PLC (Butte), Tzarina & Tra-vona Mining Corporation, Central Butte Mining Corporation, and North Butte Mining Company, (collectively the Plaintiffs) brought suit for securities fraud, RICO violations and various common law torts against the former promoters and directors of Butte and related others (the Defendants). The district court dismissed the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. The case requires the application of principles governing the extraterritorial reach of the securities law and of RICO in connection with frauds perpetrated abroad. We affirm the judgment of the district court.

THE COMPLAINT

As the case was decided on the allegations in the complaint, and as the Plaintiffs did not request the opportunity to amend the complaint, the complaint’s allegations are critical. For the purposes of this appeal only, we take the allegations to be true. We give neither support nor credence to the allegations except for this very limited purpose. The allegations are as follows:

The Promoter Defendants are Clive J. Smith, a citizen and resident of England; Laith Reynolds, a citizen of Australia and resident of Canada; Kerry Harmanus, a citizen of Australia, and the…