Rio Tinto and two former top executives have asked a US court to throw out fraud charges relating to the allegedly deliberate concealment of the collapse in value of one of the company’s coal projects.

Lawyers for former Tom Albanese asked the court to dismiss the claim by the Securities Exchange Commission that he hid a $US3 billion ($A3.78 billion) writedown on Rio’s Mozambique coal project in part because he relied on his underlings to make the decision.

While lawyers for the former chief financial officer of the $US100 billion miner, Guy Elliott, argued that Mr Elliott also relied on junior staff, while adding he was not an accountant by training to have the case dismissed.

Former Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese Credit:Sasha Woolley

The SEC charged Rio Tinto, Mr Albanese and Mr Elliott in October with fraud for allegedly inflating the value of its Mozambique coal reserves it acquired in 2011 for $US3.7 billion and sold just three years later for only $US50 million.