By Jane Croft<\/p>\n
A businessman who admitted receiving bribes of \u00a32.88m while running Bahrain\u2019s aluminium champion has been jailed for 16 months for what the judge called an \u201cextremely serious case of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Bruce Hall, former chief executive of Bahraini-owned Alba, one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to corrupt. The charge related to an alleged multimillion pound bribery conspiracy involving Canadian-British billionaire Victor Dahdaleh and Bahraini minister Sheikh Isa bin Ali al-Khalifa.<\/p>\n
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Mr Hall made a deal with Britain\u2019s Serious Fraud Office and last year appeared as a prosecution witness in the trial of Mr Dahdaleh, which collapsed because of the non-appearance of two key witnesses.<\/p>\n
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The SFO\u2019s case against Mr Dahdaleh had centred on accusations that he paid \u00a338m of bribes to Sheikh Isa in exchange for $3bn of contracts for businesses which Mr Dahdaleh represented, including\u00a0Alcoa<\/a>, a US aluminium company. Mr Dahdaleh was acquitted by the jury in what was seen as a major embarrassment for the SFO.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sentencing Mr Hall, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said the case was so serious because of the amount of money involved and the eight-year period over which the conspiracy had taken place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mr Hall had allowed himself to \u201csuccumb to temptation\u201d and in receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds had \u201cbecome an enthusiastic beneficiary\u201d of the conspiracy, the judge said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Judge Loraine-Smith ordered Mr Hall to pay \u00a3500,000 to Alba in compensation, plus a further \u00a33m in confiscation.<\/p>\n On Monday, Southwark Crown Court was told that Mr Hall, as chief executive of Alba, allowed himself to become loyal to Sheikh Isa \u2013 who was chairman of Alba at the time \u2013 and had accepted money from him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mr Hall received\u00a0a total of 20 payments<\/a>\u00a0as part of the corrupt agreement, Philip Shears QC, prosecuting for the SFO, told the court earlier in the week.<\/p>\n Mr Hall\u2019s French bank account was credited with \u20ac33,764 from an account with the Royal Bank of Canada in the name of ULECO, which Mr Hall assumed was an account controlled by Mr Dahdaleh, the court heard. Mr Shears told the court that this was the first of 16 payments which Mr Hall was to receive from this account.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At his trial Mr Dahdaleh admitted paying \u00a338m to Sheikh Isa but his lawyers had argued that the payments were not corrupt because they were known about and approved by Alba\u2019s board. Sheikh Isa vehemently denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In mitigation Mark Ellison QC, acting for Mr Hall, told the court on Monday that the Bahraini business environment was an \u201calien environment\u201d as he had previously only worked for western companies and was just a \u201cpassenger\u201d in the conspiracy, which predated his arrival at Alba.<\/p>\n Judge Loraine-Smith said in sentencing that he gave Mr Hall some credit for his guilty plea and co-operation with the SFO. He also said the 119 days which Mr Hall had served in custody in Australia after he was arrested should be deducted from his jail term.<\/p>\n The sentencing is a rare victory for the SFO, which suffered severe embarrassment when the\u00a0Dahdaleh prosecution collapsed<\/a>. It has also been hit by a series of highly publicised missteps, including being sued for \u00a3300m by the Tchenguiz brothers over its botched investigation as part of a probe into the collapse of Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank.<\/p>\n