(MENAFN) US aluminum giant Alcoa has offered Bahrain Aluminum (Alba) at least USD45 million to end a bribery lawsuit, AP reported.
The Gulf aluminum smelter has filed a lawsuit claiming that Alcoa bribed senior officials in Bahrain, causing Alba to overpay USD420 million than it should have for raw materials.
Alcoa also said in its earnings release that it offered Alba a long-term supply contract and could charge up to USD75 million more against Alcoa's future earnings to settle the lawsuit.
Alba's federal lawsuit, filed in Pittsburgh in November, accused Alcoa of conspiring with businessman Victor Dahdaleh to pay USD9.5 million in bribes to Bahrain officials and Alba executives that resulted in Alba overpaying USD420 million for raw materials, including alumina, from 1997 to 2009. Alba was seeking USD1 billion in damages.
Alcoa argued that the case should be dismissed because US federal law doesn't apply to "allegations of essentially foreign enterprises and foreign acts of bribery", it said in court papers.
The court, headed by US District Judge Donneta Ambrose, however, saw that Alba's claims made it clear that the alleged scheme originated from the US, thus rejecting Alcoa's bid to dismiss the case.
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