Alcoa Sued for Fraud and Bribery

Alcoa was sued by a metals company controlled by the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain for at least $1 billion on claims of fraud and bribery of officials overseas.

Aluminium Bahrain, or Alba, sued Alcoa in federal court in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, claiming it was overcharged for 15 years for alumina, an ingredient used to make aluminum. Alba, the 10th-largest aluminum producer, claims Alcoa bribed unidentified Bahraini government and company officials to get business. Alcoa is the world's largest producer of alumina and third-largest aluminum producer.

Former Prosecutor Arrested For Bribery

Police have arrested a Delaware County attorney and his private investigator for bribery. The attorney once served as the county prosecutor. Michael Alexander and his investigator Jeff Hinds were escorted out of Alexander's office in handcuffs Wednesday. According to an FBI affidavit, between 2005 and 2007 Alexander and Hinds offered three witnesses thousands in cash to change incriminating statements against a client.

Investigators say the witnesses recorded false statements about the crime in Alexander's office and the suspects coached the witnesses on what to say. According to the affidavit, the bribery worked because the client's charges were reduced. Experts believe this may not be the only bribery incident.

S.C. Johnson Wins Award In Kickback Scheme

A jury awarded consumer products giant S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. $147 million in damages Tuesday to compensate it for losses suffered in a trucking kickback scheme.

The Racine-based maker of products like Ziploc and Glade sued its former transportation director, Milton Morris, and a dozen other people and companies alleging a widespread scheme to bilk it out of millions of dollars. The company had asked for more than $100 million in damages.

The company claimed Morris, trucking company owner Thomas Buske, and others inflated rates and pocketed the excess. They paid each other with trips to places such as Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, rounds of golf and cash transferred through poker games.

Argentine's Former President Charged With Bribery

Former Argentine President Fernando de la Rua was charged with bribery Monday in connection to an alleged scheme to buy support from senators a year before his government collapsed, a court official said.

De la Rua, who governed Argentina from 1999 until December 2001, has repeatedly denied any involvement in an alleged bid by his aides to push labor reforms through Congress by giving senators millions of dollars. The scandal prompted his vice president to abruptly resign.

Flipping Scheme Sentencing Hearings Set

Sentencing dates have been set for next month for two of the three men who pleaded guilty in April 2006 to multiple fraud charges in a real estate flipping scheme involving rundown rental homes sold at inflated prices in Springfield and Decatur.


Gary Knox, the mastermind of the scheme, is to be sentenced March 5 and faces 151/2 to 191/2 years in prison. Frank Kelly Ciota, of Riverton, is to be sentenced March 12 and could face 61/2 to 8 years in prison, according to Sharon Paul, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

A third man, Dennis Wiese Jr., of Washington County, faces sentencing in May. His sentence range has not been determined.

Temporary Prison Repreive

Vernon Jackson and Brett Pfeffer, key figures in the federal prosecution of Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, were released recently from federal prison -- but it was only temporary. Their release from federal prison facilities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia was ordered so that they could testify at Jefferson's federal corruption trial.

But with the trial, which had been scheduled to begin Monday, postponed while a federal appellate court considers an appeal of a pretrial ruling, from Jefferson's attorneys, it's likely they will be returned to their prison cells shortly. The federal marshals' service had contracted with a local jail near Alexandria, Va., where the Jefferson case is being heard, to house the pair during the trial.

Jackson and Pfeffer pleaded guilty to participating in what the government says was a bribery scheme in which Jefferson was to help Jackson's company, iGate Inc., win telecommunications contracts in western Africa. Jackson was sentenced to seven years, three months in prison, while Pfeffer, a former aide to Jefferson, got an eight-year sentence. The government is expected to ask Judge T.S. Ellis III to reduce the sentences, but only after Pfeffer and Jackson testify and the Jefferson trial is over. Jefferson has pleaded innocent.

Former VW Boss Jailed In Bribery Scandal

A German court sentenced former VW works council head Klaus Volkert to almost three years in prison on Friday, the first person to be given jail time in the bribery and sex trips scandal that rocked Europe's biggest carmaker.

The court found Volkert guilty of inciting and abetting a breach of trust and handed the former labour boss a two year and nine month sentence.

Government Employee Sentenced In Bribery Case

A former D.C. government employee, who was in charge of assigning first-time criminal offenders to do cleanup and other community service tasks, was sentenced yesterday to 13 months in prison for taking bribes from people who did no work, prosecutors said.

Eric A. Shannon, 41, was a sanitation supervisor for the D.C. Department of Public Works, which uses first-time offenders on weekends to help with tasks such as cleaning alleys, removing leaves and removing graffiti. If the work is done and the offenders commit no other crimes, their cases are dismissed.

Prosecutors said that Shannon took bribes on at least six occasions from offenders who did not do the work. In exchange for payments of $50 to $400, Shannon provided signed letters on city stationery falsely claiming that the work had been performed, prosecutors said. Last June, for example, he solicited and took $400 in return for providing a letter attesting that an offender completed 88 hours of community service, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. ordered that Shannon serve two years of supervised release after leaving prison.

Scruggs Sought Trent Lott's Influence

Powerful plaintiffs attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs tried to use his brother-in-law, former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, to influence the ruling of a sitting Mississippi judge, a government witness testified Wednesday in federal court. He also testified that in another case a judge, and not Scruggs, first floated the idea of a $40,000 bribe.

The testimony about Lott came during a hearing in a federal case in which Scruggs, his son Zach, and law partner Sidney Backstrom are charged with trying to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey to get a favorable ruling in a dispute over $26.5 million in legal fees.

Lott is not charged with any wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. refused Wednesday to dismiss the charges against Scruggs and others in the alleged bribery attempt involving Lackey. The hearing was scheduled to continue today. A trial is scheduled to start March 31.

Contractor gets 12 years for bribery

A federal judge in San Diego, California, sentenced defense contractor Brent Wilkes to 12 years in prison Tuesday for bribing then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, federal prosecutors said.

He was accused of providing more than $700,000 to Cunningham in exchange for the Southern California Republican's help steering more than $70 million in defense contracts to Wilkes and another contractor, Mitchell Wade.

Prosecutors accused Wilkes, 53, of paying off a $500,000 note on Cunningham's California home; picking up the tab for vacation outings, private jet travel and limousines; buying Cunningham a $14,000 speedboat; and having an employee line up prostitutes for himself and the lawmaker during a two-night stay in Hawaii.
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If Wilkes was anything like Stan "Pampy" Barre, III, he would have just performed oral sex on the prostitute for free.