Frederick Bourke Convicted in Pirate of Prague Oil Bribery Case
Viktor Kozeny -- mastermind of an infamous late-1990s scheme to buy Socar, Azerbaijan's corruption-ridden state oil company -- is sitting free in the Bahamas, which refuses to extradite him to the U.S. As O&G readers recall, Fortune magazine dubbed the Czech national "the Pirate of Prague" for his history of dissatisfied investors. In any case, absent the chance to try anyone else central to the scheme, federal prosecutors threw the book at Frederick Bourke, co-founder of handbag maker Dooney & Bourke, who invested $5 million in the deal. Yesterday, a federal jury convicted Bourke for conspiring to pay bribes. The judge said she will sentence him to less than 10 years in prison.
The deal to bribe then-Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev went bad, mainly because Socar was never truly for sale; it was a scam. As for guilt, Bourke and a slew of other leading Wall Street investors certainly could be convicted of greed and stupidity – it was obvious to anyone with even passing knowledge ofAzerbaijan
Blogger Christopher Fountain is having fun at Bourke’s expense, but the lawyers over at Cassin Law, who write the FCPA blog, say Bourke was a victim, not a culprit.
The deal to bribe then-Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev went bad, mainly because Socar was never truly for sale; it was a scam. As for guilt, Bourke and a slew of other leading Wall Street investors certainly could be convicted of greed and stupidity – it was obvious to anyone with even passing knowledge of
Blogger Christopher Fountain is having fun at Bourke’s expense, but the lawyers over at Cassin Law, who write the FCPA blog, say Bourke was a victim, not a culprit.
Labels: Aliyev, Azerbaijan, bourke, pirate of prague, viktor kozeny
5 Comments:
The FCPA Blog is saying Bourke is a victim, and a culprit . . .
Hi anonymous. I don't see the culprit part in the FCPA blog item. It seems to me to be all victim. Do you mind spelling out the sentence? Thanks, Steve
The message that the Justice Department is sending us is pretty clear: Foreign corrupt practices are an exclusive preserve of the U.S. Government. Copy our own conduct, and we’ll prosecute you. After all, we’re shameless.
Scott makes a good point here; the message has become more corrupt than any FCPA violation per se. The (much vaunted) case against Baker Hughes is a case in point, a more political (designed to weaken BH and favor Halliburton) case is difficult to imagine, strangely the multi year delays in Agip KCO awarding contracts “won” by Halliburton’s competitors (including Baker Hughes) which were never awarded to the “winners” but rather retained by Halliburton (remember Mr. Chaney’s unexplained detour to Atyrau, after which all Agip KCO support for the real winners ceased) in circumstances that were “mysterious” , to say the least.
The DOJ/SEC became a laughing stock during the Bush administration, hopefully they can be cleaned up during the Obama Presidency (but I am not optimistic).
Having flown Bourke in the nineties (he had a Falcon 50 N326FB), he had extensive dealings with Viktor in Aspen and the Azis. He was flown there and spoke of how, "things were done (over here)."
My satisfaction with this is purely personal as Bourke is as low as they come and carma has finally caught up to him.
Anonymous: I'll let this one pass, but ordinarily I think that as a courtesy you ought to give your own name when you are trashing someone personally. Best Steve
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