A key figure in a bribery probe of Alcoa Inc.’s work in Bahrain was arrested by the U.K.

On Monday, the Serious Fraud Office said it arrested Victor Dahdaleh, a Canadian businessman born in Jordan and living in Belgravia, London. The Wall Street Journal’s Dionne Searcey wrote this report.

Dahdaleh was arrested for allegedly paying bribes between 2001 and 2005 to state-owned Aluminum Bahrain BSC, or Alba, on behalf of Alcoa in exchange for contracts. The contracts were for alumina, which is used to make aluminum, shipped from Bahrain to Australia, the SFO said.

The SFO also said other payments were made in connection with contracts to supply goods and services to Alba. Dahdaleh is a longtime agent for Pittsburgh-based Alcoa who has helped negotiate contracts for other companies in the region, and elsewhere, Searcey reported.

Dahdaleh was released on bail and asked to appear Oct. 31 at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court. A spokesman for his lawyers, Allen & Overy, said in a statement the investigation was “flawed” and that “he has done nothing wrong.”

6:10 pm  •  24 October 2011  •  24 notes