An ironworkers' pension fund has sued aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. and its board of directors over a purported scheme to bribe officials in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh comes after a judge in March temporarily halted a civil lawsuit against the company to allow federal investigators to conduct a criminal probe into the allegations.

The Hawaii Structural Ironworkers Pension Trust Fund accuses Alcoa's board in the lawsuit of "causing and/or failing to prevent Alcoa's illegal payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal bribe payments" to senior Bahraini government officials.

The company's officers and directors "repeatedly misrepresented how they were overseeing, managing and operating Alcoa in a lawful and ethical manner," the pension fund said in its lawsuit, according to court documents.

Kevin Lowery, an Alcoa spokesman, said he had not had a chance to thoroughly review the latest lawsuit, but that Alcoa's position on the earlier allegations had not changed.

"We have looked into this and we haven't seen any instances of wrongdoing by our employees at all," he said, adding that Alcoa was cooperating with Justice Department investigators looking into the bribery claims.

The ironworkers' pension fund, which owns Alcoa shares, is seeking unspecified damages for financial losses incurred by the alleged bribery. It also wants reforms intended to broaden shareholder rights and tighten the company's governance and accounting practices.