Viktor Kožený (born 28 June 1963 in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
,
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
) is a fugitive financier.
According to
Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...
, he graduated from
Harvard in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in economics. However, he cannot be located in the Harvard Alumni directory as of 2015. Viktor Kožený is an
Irish citizen imprisoned in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archi ...
in 2005
but released in 2007. He currently lives in a gated community in the Bahamas. Efforts to bring him to justice stem from both the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...
and the USA. An international warrant has been issued for Kožený, who in the early 1990s ran one of the great scams of the post-Communist era.
By the media he is often called "the pirate of Prague".
He was imprisoned after a US extradition request, but that was refused by Bahaman authorities in October 2007.
In February 2008 a court case against him and his partner Boris Vostrý started at Prague Municipal Court. Kožený has remained in the Bahamas and has not been attending the trial. He asked the prosecution to publish the charges on the Internet, which the state prosecutor has refused to do. His defense counsel later published the indictment upon order from Kožený.
In 2010, Kožený was convicted of fraud by a Czech court and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and ordered to pay damages equal to hundreds of millions in
USD. In 2012, the judgment was reaffirmed by the High Court in Prague with minor changes. An enforcement action based on this judgement has been lodged by the fraud victim in New York, targeting assets frozen by US authorities. The defendant in the case is a company owned beneficially by Kožený's mother, Jitka Chvatik. Assets of the company have been refrozen by the court after the company lost an appeal in 2014. The case is still pending.
As of January 2019, Kožený is still internationally wanted by the Czech and US criminal justice. He is effectively confined to
The Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the arc ...
, holding his Irish passport.
Czech voucher privatization
During the
voucher privatization, Czech state assets were supposed to be handed over to Czech citizens through a system of vouchers, which could then be used to buy
shares
In financial markets, a share is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation, and can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Share capital refers to all of the shares of an ...
in companies. However
mutual funds
A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV ...
were founded, most successfully the one started by Kožený, Harvard Capital and Consulting (which has no affiliation with
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
).
Soon thousands of Czechs were signing over their voucher books to "Harvard", who promised a 1000% rate of return on investment.
Harvard Funds bought shares in a number of companies, stripped assets and transferred the money abroad to offshore
tax havens
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
like the Bahamas. This scam turned out to be a huge success for Kožený and those working with him, who allegedly stole millions of dollars from investors in his funds.
Azerbaijan scam
In 1994, Kožený wanted to conduct a similar transaction in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
.
The country was considering
privatizing its state run oil company
SOCAR
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic ( az, Azərbaycan Respublikası Dövlət Neft Şirkəti), largely known as SOCAR is fully state-owned national oil and gas company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and n ...
, and Kožený offered his services.
U.S. investors handed their money to him,
over $400 million in total from clients such as
AIG and
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
.
The Azerbaijan government changed its mind on privatization, but Kožený did not return the money and instead ran to the Bahamas.
Viktor Kožený in an exclusive interview with
Mirza Khazar of the RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service on 17 July 2001 urged then Azerbaijani President
Heidar Aliev
Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev ( az, Һејдәр Әлирза оғлу Әлијев, italic=no, Heydər Əlirza oğlu Əliyev, ; , ; 10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani politician who served as the third president of Azer ...
to fulfill his promises made in 1997–1998 concerning the privatization program in his country. According to Kožený, Heydar Aliyev and his son and current president,
Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev ( az, İlham Heydər oğlu Əliyev, ; born 24 December 1961) is the fourth president of Azerbaijan, serving in the post since 31 October 2003.
The son and second child of the former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev ...
, personally met with him and other members of Kožený's investors group in Baku and encouraged them to buy vouchers from citizens. Shortly after the first part of the interview with Viktor Kožený was aired, the newspaper "Alternativ," with close ties to the Azerbaijan President's Office, reacted promptly, claiming that President Aliev or his son Ilham never met with Kožený. The paper admitted Kožený may have been tricked by some officials, but rejected his claim that President Aliev made any commitments to his group. Kožený faced a serious legal action by famed
Manhattan District Attorney
The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County (Manhattan), New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws ...
Robert Morgenthau, who had filed an indictment in New York for his bribery of Azeri officials.
His trial for the scam began on 1 June 2010.
The Bahamian authorities later refused to turn Kožený over to the US authorities upon a 2012 ruling of the
Privy Council which stated the offence was not an
extraditable
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...
one.
However Kožený's partner,
Frederic Bourke, appeared in a US court in 2009. The court accepted it to be proven that Kožený and his entourage bribed the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliev, his son Ilham Aliyev, and two other high-ranking Azerbaijani officials. According to the indictment, the total amount of bribes reached USD 11 million.
Azerbaijan and International Corruption Scandals
Baku Research Institute. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
See also
*List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
This is a list of fugitive
A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. ...
References
External links
Official site
of Harvard industrial holdings
Official site
of Ochranné Sdružení Malých Akcionářů
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozeny, Viktor
1963 births
Fugitive financiers
Fugitives wanted by the Czech Republic
Fugitives wanted by the United States
Fugitives wanted on fraud charges
Harvard University alumni
Irish people imprisoned abroad
Irish people of Czech descent
Irish expatriates in the Bahamas
Living people
Naturalised citizens of Ireland
Prisoners and detainees of the Bahamas