Stet: US

Czech-born financier Viktor Kozeny has escaped extradition to the

United States

following a lengthy legal battle in the

Bahamas

Nicknamed the ‘Pirate of Prague’ and ‘Viktor O’Kozeny’, the businessman secured Irish citizenship in 1995 under the controversial and now defunct passports for investment scheme. He invested €1.27m in an Irish software firm.

Kozeny has been in the Bahamas for over two years, and was arrested there on foot of an extradition warrant from the United States. He languished in a tropical prison cell for 19 months before being released on $300,000 bail last May.

Kozeny is accused of stealing $182m from US investors including former Senator George Mitchell, who spearheaded the Northern Ireland peace process, and between 1997 and 1999 of paying millions of dollars of bribes to government officials in Azerbaijan between who were dealing with the privitisation of the country’s state-owned oil company.

He also gave gifts to the Azeri officials, including an 18-carat gold box inlaid with diamonds worth €340,000, claim US prosecutors, who also accuse Kozeny of money laundering.

Kozeny has also been accused by the Czech government of being involved in the embezzlement of property worth as much as €570m. Czech authorities are also seeking his extradition to face charges.

He has denied all the allegations and claimed he is an “innocent man” who has become a “negative hero in order to stop his creative activity”.

Last week a court in the Bahamas said that Kozeny could not be extradited to the US because he is not a Bahamian citizen, while the judge hearing the case also said that it has not been proven that Kozeny bribed any Azeri officials.

US officials are expected to appeal the ruling.

In 2003, after his Czech citizenship had been revoked, Kozeny announced his intention to stand for election in the Czech Republic as an independent candidate. He aimed to use his Irish citizenship to enable him to do so.

While it has been previously reported that his Irish citizenship is to be revoked, the Department of Foreign Affairs has yet not made any definitive moves to do so.

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=278327

http://www.jonesbahamas.com/?c=45&a=14585

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/ireland/article576519.ece

http://www.belgrafix.com/gtoday/2007news/Oct/Oct20/Too-much-politics.htm

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/48045

http://www.bahamasb2b.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=3994

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/04/02/ccluke02.xml&lubos_motl=reference_frame

http://www.internationalextraditionblog.com/2005/12/extradition-from-bahamasviktor-kozeny.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Ko%C5%BEen%C3%BD

http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/2005101007.html