The United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office abruptly dropped its high-profile international bribery case against billionaire businessman Victor Dahdaleh on Tuesday, blaming the midtrial retreat partly on complications involving witnesses from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
The judge overseeing the London case told jurors Tuesday to return a not-guilty verdict against Dahdaleh after prosecutors said they wouldn’t put forward any more evidence. U.K. prosecutors had alleged that Dahdaleh, while working as an agent for Alcoa Inc. in the 1990s to 2004, paid about $67 million in bribes to Bahraini officials and employees of the Bahraini state-controlled smelting company Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C., known as Alba. Dahdaleh has admitted to making payments but maintains that the Bahraini government knew about and condoned his actions.
