People and businesses owed money by Asarco are seeking no less than $100 million from nine of the directors and officers of Asarco's parent company, Grupo Mexico.

In documents filed this week in bankruptcy court in Texas, the creditors of Asarco LLC claim the Grupo Mexico officials "grossly neglected and breached their fiduciary duties to Asarco and Asarco's creditors, took advantage of their positions of trust with Asarco and Asarco's creditors, and/or engaged in acts of corporate waste, self-dealing, and unjust enrichment causing Asarco and Asarco's creditors to needlessly suffer millions of dollars in damages."

"Plaintiff hereby sues the directors and officers for waste, corporate waste, waste of corporate assets, negligence, gross negligence, and negligence per se," the creditors say in the lawsuit.

The creditors argue that the officials damaged the company by approving the transfer of its assets for considerably less than fair market value when Asarco was unable to pay its debts.

In addition, the company believes those officials pursued certain courses of action, or failed to act, in ways that would have preserved Asarco's value and assets.

Asarco and Grupo Mexico own the shuttered East Helena lead smelter, which was mothballed in 2001 and is in the process of being dismantled after a century of operations. The companies also own numerous mines and mills throughout the country.

It also owned 49 percent interest in the Montana Resources mine near Butte, but lost that after Asarco Inc.'s board -- controlled by Grupo Mexico personnel -- refused to authorize a series of payments to keep its partnership interest.

Asarco LLC and Asarco Inc. are two separate entities. Asarco LLC is run by a three-person board of directors, who were appointed by the bankruptcy court. Two of those directors represent creditors, or people and businesses owed money by Asarco. The other director represents Grupo Mexico.

The lawsuit is the latest salvo in an attempt by Asarco LLC and its creditors to gain control of existing assets as well as those lost after the company was purchased by Grupo Mexico in 1999.

The newest filing is similar to, yet distinct from, a lawsuit filed by Asarco LLC in February because, while they cover the same allegations, the second is filed by the creditors, not the company.

The creditors and Asarco LLC both claim that Grupo Mexico bought Asarco with the intent of stripping it of its assets, and leaving the company with hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental liabilities.

They alleged one example of this stripping was when Grupo Mexico formed the American Mining Corp. and "sold" Asarco's arguably most valuable asset, a Peruvian copper company, to the newly formed sister corporation at what Asarco said was a low-ball price.

Asarco, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection in 2005, has asked the bankruptcy judge to find that Grupo Mexico fraudulently transferred the stock, and to void the transfer. The judge has not ruled on the request.

Asarco also asked the bankruptcy judge in February to prohibit Grupo Mexico from taking a $40.5 million tax refund owed Asarco by the Internal Revenue Service. That request also is pending.

The new lawsuit mimics some of the previous stances in the lawsuits filed by Asarco against Grupo Mexico, but provides more insight into the inner workings and relationships between Asarco and Grupo Mexico's boards of directors.

For example, Grupo Mexico's chief executive officer, German Larrea Mota-Velasco is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. He was a director of Asarco from 1999 to 2003 and also served as the company's chief executive officer.

Also named are Genaro Larrea Mota-Velasco, who sat on Asarco's board from 1999 to 2003 and was the company's vice president and president; Xavier Garcia de Quevedo Topete, a director from 1999 to 2003 who served as president and chief operating officer from 1999 to 2001; Oscar Gonzalez Rocha, Manuel Calderon Cardenas, Alberto de la Parra Zavala and Alfredo Casar Perez, directors from 1999 to 2003; and Armando Fausto Ortega Gomez, who was a director from 2002 to 2003. All of those defendants are believed to be residents of Mexico.

In addition, the lawsuit named Daniel Tellechea Salido of Arizona as a defendant. Tellechea was a director of Asarco from 1999 to 2005, and also was vice president, treasurer, chief financial officer, president and chairman of the board of Asarco from 2003 to 2005.

The creditors say that as Asarco's board of directors, these people were required to act in the best interest of the company and those to whom it owed money.

"The directors and officers were anything but independent directors of Asarco," the creditors claim. "Rather, they all served in multiple capacities for Grupo Mexico, AMC and Asarco. However, almost from the beginning, the actions by the directors and officers demonstrated that their ultimate loyalties were to Grupo Mexico and AMC, resulting in devastating financial losses to Asarco."

This newest lawsuit reiterates Asarco's claim that the transfer of the Southern Peru Copper Corp. was a "sweetheart deal" for less than its fair market value.

In addition, it claims the directors neglected Asarco's core mining business, sold land with confirmed ore bodies for raw land prices and cannibalized Asarco's assets by selling critical and irreplaceable mining equipment to related parties.

Prior to Grupo Mexico's acquisition, Asarco had more than $4 billion in assets and $1.4 billion in stockholder equity, both of which were built up during its 100 years of operation.

Asarco and its creditors claim that Grupo Mexico structured the leveraged buyout in 1999 so that Asarco "assumed huge amounts of additional debt," and that Grupo Mexico kept Asarco operating only long enough to transfer the Peruvian copper operation and to allow any statute of limitations to run out.

"... the directors and officers, through the direction and control of Grupo Mexico and AMC, systematically and methodically liquidated Asarco's assets, often times for far less than reasonably equivalent value, all to the detriment of Asarco and its creditors," the creditors note in the newest claim.

The 44-page complaint then goes on to list various ways Grupo Mexico proceeded to shut down Asarco, from installing its own directors to Asarco's top positions to selling other chemical and aggregate subsidiaries.

Reporter Eve Byron can be reached at 447-4076 or at eve.byron@helenair.com.