R help - Apr 2013 - Problem with raster function with values lower than -9999

As I have reported in a previous thread, I have been having problems 
importing a ASCII raster that has values that go from Min. :-69826220 
to  Max.   :167780500. The problem I am encountering is that when I use 
the raster function to import the ASCII file then every value smaller 
than -9999 is reported as NA and the minimum value is -9458.

Is this a bug of the function and is there a workaround? When I import 
the same ASCII file as a data frame everything is fine and I get the 
whole range of values.

Any help is appreciated