Aluminum Company Pays $385 Million to Settle Bahrain Bribery Probe

Isn't that just a bribe to the United States?

Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, agreed to pay $384 million to settle U.S. allegations that one of its units bribed members of Bahrain's royal family and officials at a state-owned company to win business.

Alcoa World Alumina LLC, a majority-owned unit that supplies the raw material used by smelters to make aluminum, will plead guilty to one count of violating the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a 2004 transaction, the Department of Justice said in a statement today.

"Alcoa World Alumina today admits to its involvement in a corrupt international underworld in which a middleman secretly held offshore bank accounts and shell companies were used to funnel bribes to government officials in order to secure business," Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman said in the statement.