Aluminium Bahrain Seeks to Keep Bribery Suit Against Alcoa Alive

Bahrain’s state-owned aluminum producer asked a court to let it proceed with racketeering claims that it overpaid for raw materials because of bribes directed by Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest U.S. aluminum producer.

Aluminium Bahrain BSC, known as Alba, claims that New York- based Alcoa bribed senior officials in Bahrain and caused Alba to pay almost $500 million more than it should have for alumina, the principal raw material in aluminum. Alcoa has asked a judge to dismiss the case, arguing that the alleged conduct took place outside the U.S. and shouldn’t be litigated in federal court.

Alba countered that Alcoa and other defendants used offshore shell companies to “perpetrate and conceal a massive, home-cooked bribery scheme conceived, orchestrated, and directed in and from the United States,” according to its filing yesterday in federal court in Pittsburgh.

Claims of domestic leadership of the fraudulent scheme are “amply supported by Alba’s detailed, specific, and documented allegations of actions in furtherance of the scheme by senior domestic executives,” according to the filing.

Alcoa argued in court papers on Jan. 27 that U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose should dismiss the complaint because federal law doesn’t apply to “allegations of essentially foreign enterprises and foreign acts of bribery.”