Words by

grapevine

A statement from the aluminium corporation cites the praise they received from investigators for their cooperation.
Yesterday, Alcoa settled numerous criminal and civil charges concerning bribes made through a London-based consultant connected to Bahrain’s royal family.
In a statement to the press on the matter, Alcoa says they “welcome” the conclusion of the case.

There is no allegation in the filings by the DOJ and there is no finding by the SEC that anyone at Alcoa Inc. knowingly engaged in the conduct at issue.
The DOJ credited Alcoa for “the substantial cooperation provided to the Department” throughout the investigation.
The DOJ also credited Alcoa with launching an independent investigation overseen by a special committee of the Board of Directors and implementing enhanced due diligence reviews of third party agents and consultants.
Similarly, the SEC has agreed that Alcoa “fully cooperated with the staff of the Commission.” The SEC has also acknowledged Alcoa’s extensive compliance efforts, including its comprehensive compliance reviews of anti-corruption policies and procedures and enhancements made to internal controls.
Alcoa welcomes the resolution of this legacy legal matter with the U.S. Government.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman told CNN of the case that “lack of knowledge does not excuse Alcoa,” and Forbes added that the SEC contends “Alcoa either knew or was willfully blind to the red flags associated with such an arrangement, and used the consultant to pay bribes to Bahraini officials by using ‘commissions’ paid to the consultant by Alcoa’s subsidiary.”
The full statement from Alcoa can be read here (.pdf file).
Correction: The story that reported this news yesterday originally bore the headline “Icelander Connected To Alcoa Bribery Case”, on account of an Icelander having been put in charge of Alcoa for the Middle East region last November. However, as the original article said, the Icelander in question was brought into the region long after the alleged wrongdoing took place, and is therefore not connected to this case. The Grapevine regrets this misleading headline.