Magistrate Approves Kozeny Extradition:

By Stephen Gay -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Magistrate Carolita Bethel ruled on Thursday that Czech-born financier Viktor Kozeny can be extradited to the United States to face corruption charges.

Kozeny has been behind bars at Her Majesty’s Prison for nearly a year. Last October, he was indicted along with others in a New York court.

U.S. authorities claim that Kozeny and others bribed senior government officials of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan in an effort to gain an unfair advantage during the privatization of the state-owned oil company.

The magistrate ordered Kozeny to be extradited to face corruption charges even though the U.S. had indicted him on money laundering and bribery charges.

Shortly after the ruling was read, Prosecutor Francis Cumberbatch quickly left the courtroom as Kozeny stood looking on.

Earlier in the day, as he was being led into the court, Kozeny told reporters outside the courtroom that he was confident that he was going to be released and that he was looking forward to getting a haircut following the proceedings.

Kozeny now has 15 days to appeal Magistrate Bethel’s ruling to the Supreme Court, where a habeas corpus application seeking his release, will be filed, according to his attorney, Clive Nichols.

Nichols said he hopes that after filing the appeal he would be able to get a hearing in the Supreme Court before the end of the year.

Mr. Nichols told The Bahama Journal after the hearing that even though accused drug kingpin Samuel "Ninety" Knowles was whisked away to Florida while a court matter was pending in The Bahamas, he was not concerned that the same would happen to his client.

He said that under the law once an appeal is filed, the applicant is then bound to the jurisdiction.

"I think the next ruling will be unequivocally changed," Kozeny told reporters. "I think it will turn out in my favour."

Kozeny, Frederic Bourke Jr. and David Pinkerton were charged in the United States with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it a crime to offer to pay, or to pay, foreign government officials in order to obtain or retain business.

The defendants were also charged with related crimes, including money laundering.

U.S. officials alleged that this particular crime came about as a result of wire transfers of millions of dollars to purchase Azeri vouchers and options, which in turn promoted violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The indictment further alleges that, beginning in August 1997 and continuing until 1999, Kozeny, Bourke and Pinkerton and others paid or caused to be paid millions of dollars worth of bribes to Azeri government officials to ensure that their investment consortium would gain a controlling interest in SOCAR, the oil company, and be able to reap huge profits from its ultimate resale in the market.

Kozeny, who is originally from the Czech Republic but has Irish citizenship, was arrested by Bahamian law enforcement authorities in October 2005 pursuant to a provisional arrest request made by the U.S. government.

29 September 2006

extradition