By Amena Bakr
DUBAI, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Aluminum Bahrain (Alba) and U.S. aluminum maker Alcoa said on Tuesday they had settled the Bahraini firm's racketeering and fraud suit against Alcoa in return for $85 million in cash plus long-term raw material supply contracts.
Alba put the value of the contracts at $362 million. Alcoa declined to give a value.
Alba had accused Alcoa of conspiring with a businessman to orchestrate bribes in Bahrain and to overcharge it for alumina, the crucial material used to make aluminum.
The Bahraini firm filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court in Pennsylvania - Alcoa is based in Pittsburgh - in 2008 and sought damages in excess of $1 billion and punitive damages.
"We are very happy with this settlement, this is great news for Alba and Bahrain," Alba Chairman Mahmood Hashim al-Kooheji, who is also chief executive of Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, said in an interview from Manama.
(Additional reporting by Steve James in New York; Writing by Amran Abocar; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
((amran.abocar@thomsonreuters.com)(+971 4 453 6467)(Reuters Messaging: amran.abocar@thomsonreuters.com))
Keywords: BAHRAIN ALBA/ALCOA