Alcoa Inc asked a federal judge in Pittsburgh to dismiss a bribery lawsuit filed against the company by an aluminum maker controlled by the Bahrain government.
Aluminum Bahrain BSC claims New York based Alcoa reaped more than USD 400 million in illegal profits by overcharging it for alumina used to make aluminum. The company, known as Alba said part of that money was used to pay bribes to senior executives of Alba and to the Bahrain government.
Ms Lori K Lecker spokeswomen of Alcoa said that the company has moved to dismiss this case in its entirety because Alba's claims are not supported by law or by fact. Alcoa's motion to dismiss the lawsuit says that Alba fails to link Alcoa executives' actions with any scheme and that, because the lawsuit centers on events overseas, federal laws don't apply.
Mr Attorney Charles B Gibbons representing Alba said that "The plaintiff has the utmost confidence in the case we have submitted to the federal court. Alcoa is painting the case as simply a faraway quarrel and that is not true. Alba has until February 16th 2012 to file its response.”
Mr Lecker said that Alba's complaint mischaracterizes any number of normal business transactions through overdrawn inferences and innuendo and those mischaracterizations fail to meet the legal threshold for Alba's claims.
The lawsuit Alba filed in 2008 was on hold until November when Judge Donetta Ambrose of US District Court ordered Alba to detail its bribery allegations. Alcoa had asked Ambrose to proceed with the case saying it wanted to defend itself.
Alba seeking more than USD 1 billion in damages has claimed Mr Victor Dahdaleh, an Alcoa agent in Bahrain owned or ran overseas shell companies that were used to funnel kickbacks to Alba officials, bribes to Bahrain officials and USD 13 million in commissions to Mr Dahdaleh.
The lawsuit and a federal racketeering complaint filed in December name Alcoa and a subsidiary as defendants along with Mr Dahdaleh and William Rice, an Alcoa executive at the North Shore Center who Alba claims made false representations.
Alcoa said that Alba's amended complaint filed in November continues to compain about alleged fraud by foreign entities and individuals that took place on foreign soil and that injured a foreign plaintiff.
Even if the allegations are true not a single bribe, alleged to have occurred over a two decade long period, was paid by any of the participants in the enterprise from inside the United States nor by any US participant in the alleged enterprises.
(Sourced from www.pittsburghlive.com)
