Bahamy

Viktor Kozeny (Photo: Michal Růžička, MAFA)

Viktor Kozeny, the so-called Pirate of Prague, is currently sitting in a police cell in his adopted home of the Bahamas, after being arrested by the FBI. On Thursday US federal prosecutors charged him and two other men with participating in a scheme to bribe senior government officials in Azerbaijan over lucrative oil privatisation deals. He now faces extradition to the U.S. But as Rob Cameron reports, Czech investors who say they were defrauded by Mr Kozeny have little hope of seeing their money again. More...

The consensus among lawyers in Prague at the end of last week was that the U.S. authorities have an infinitely greater chance of bringing Kozeny to justice than their Czech counterparts. More...

Kozeny's lawyer wants end of client's prosecution as a fugitive More...

If Kozeny is found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison for money laundering and five years in prison for each of the 27 counts of the charge according to which hey breached Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Associated Press has reported. More...

Mr Kozeny remains an Irish citizen to this day, although the Government is understood to be examining means of rescinding his citizenship. According to informed sources, the scrutiny of his citizenship centres on two provisions in the 1956 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act. This allows a certificate of naturalisation to be revoked if the issue was procured by fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment of material facts. More...

Kožený has been prosecuted in the Czech Republic for fraud connected with the activities of Harvardské fondy (Harvard funds), which participated in coupon privatization in then-Czechoslovakia after the fall of the previous regime. He then left for the Bahamas with an estimated $200 million. The Czech courts have been trying to extradite Kožený, claiming he tunneled investment funds in the coupon privatization and deprived small shareholders of Kč 11.5 billion.More...

Mr Kozeny has been known as a flamboyant spender who owned two planes and a 165-foot yacht. At Lyford Cay he built a $14 million swimming pool the size of a small lake, Fortune magazine reported in 2000. More...

James Margolin, spokesman for the New York branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told CTK in Prague by phone that nothing stands in the way of Kozeny's extradition because the Bahamas has an extradition treaty with the United States. More Bahamas News...

When a guy called the Pirate of Prague asks you to partner up with him again--you lost your shirt the first time--it's easy to be dismissive. Nonetheless, in the kind of audacious ploy only he could dream up, 36-year-old Czech promoter Viktor Kozeny is asking the very investors who are suing him for fraud to join...
Kozeny to Investors: Let's Sue the Azeris
By Peter Elkind (FORTUNE)


The place where Kozeny could escape:
no tax;
political and economic stability;
absence of exchange controls, currency controls or capital controls; More...