Alcoa’s former agent Victor Dahdaleh and the one-time head of Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (‘Alba’) appeared Monday in criminal court in London.
Dahdaleh, 63, a Jordanian-born dual citizen of Canada and Britain, was charged with bribing Alba officials. The Serious Fraud Office said he allegedly paid the bribes from 2001 to 2005 in connection with contracts between Pittsburgh-based Alcoa and Alba for supplies of alumina shipped from Australia.
Bruce Allen Hall, 59, was extradited from Australia after his arrest there in October last year. He was CEO of Alba between 2001 and 2005. He faces conspiracy and substantive corruption counts, and money laundering.
In court Monday, Dahdaleh and Hall didn’t enter pleas. Another hearing was scheduled for May 25. The court set a tentative trial date for April 2013.
The U.S. Justice Department opened a criminal investigation in 2008 into allegations that Alcoa Inc. and some individuals violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other laws by bribing foreign officials in Bahrain, including employees of state-owned Alba.
In the Press Assocation’s report about Monday’s hearing, it said the billionaire Dahdaleh has been a donor to the U.K. Labour Party for many years.
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