The Wheels of Justice in New York

On Friday, a three-and-a-half-year-old question will hang again before Federal Judge William Pauley in New York: When will James Giffen's foreign bribery trial commence? (Photo by Andy Freeburg)

The California-born Giffen, former chief oil adviser to Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has managed to stall his trial -- the largest foreign bribery case since the U.S. law was passed in 1977 -- since his arrest at JFK Airport in March 2004.

The trial is bound to be intriguing, not only because of the sums involved, but also because the theatrical Giffen himself -- with a three-and-a-half-decade-long insider's career in the Soviet Union and former Soviet Union -- is one of the most colorful foreign characters of the Caspian oil boom era. The case has come to characterize many of the excesses of the epoch.

In addition, Nazarbayev is an unindicated co-conspirator -- again, a symbol of the alleged official corruption of the post-Soviet period -- and the case has already damaged U.S. relations with Kazakhstan, an important U.S. ally on the Caspian Sea.

Federal prosecutors claim that the 66-year-old Giffen passed on some $80 million in payments from U.S. oil companies to Nazarbayev and some other prominent Kazakhs from oil deals that the American negotiated during the 1990s.

Giffen so far has not disputed that claim, but has asserted that when he served as Nazarbayev's adviser, he was simultaneously consulting with and assisting U.S. intelligence agencies including the CIA on Kazakhstan matters.

The judicial delay has resulted from wrangling between Giffen's lawyers -- insisting on CIA documentation that they claim will prove his asserted defense -- and ultra-resistant prosecutors from perhaps the most secretive presidential administration in U.S. history.

Giffen's apparent hope is that eventually the prosecutors will drop some of the more serious charges rather than release documents they are seeking.

There have been signs of meddling from the Justice Department in terms of attempting to classify sensitive testimony already long released in open court. Otherwise, like Giffen himself, the prosecutors have not publicly indicated that they are prepared to compromise.

In the past, Judge Pauley has pressed the two sides to accelerate their work so jury selection can begin. But he canceled the most recent scheduled pre-trial hearing, since apparently there was no indication that the sides were nearer to being ready to try the case.

Will Judge Pauley finally going to put his foot down and set a date? The trial certainly will not begin this year. But if Pauley does act, it could easily start in the first half of 2008.