Trade Arabia reported that US aluminium producer Alcoa has offered to pay Bahrain based Alba, one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world, at least USD 45 million in an out of court settlement.

Alba has filed a federal lawsuit, alleging Alcoa related firms paid millions in bribes to ensure the Bahrain smelter overpaid for raw materials.

Mr Libby Archell spokeswoman of Alcoa said that the company continued to dispute Alba's claims. However, we are open to settlement to avoid the time and expense of complex litigation.

The report said that Alcoa's earnings release stated it had also offered Alba a long term alumina supply contract and could charge up to USD 75 million more against Alcoa's future earnings to settle the lawsuit not to mention additional unspecified costs to settle related investigations by the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Alba's lawsuit, filed in Pittsburgh in November contends Alcoa affiliates controlled by billionaire businessman Mr Victor Dahdaleh paid USD 9.5 million in bribes to Bahrain officials and Alba executives that resulted in Alba overpaying USD 420 million for raw materials including alumina from 1997 to 2009. Alba was seeking USD 1 billion in damages.

Alba originally sued in June 2008 but a federal judge in Pittsburgh kept the case on hold for more than 3 years at the request of the Justice Department which expressed concerns that its related criminal investigation would be harmed if Alba's more specific allegations were made public or if discovery a pre trial exchange of evidence were allowed to proceed in the lawsuit.

Alcoa attorneys said the company was co-operating with the government investigation when they asked US District Judge Donetta Ambrose to let the case proceed last autumn, so Alcoa could be confronted with the specific allegations and then seek to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Source - Trade Arabia

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