Magistrate Carolita Bethel yesterday put off the extradition hearing of Czech-born financier Viktor Kozeny to today after the prosecutor, Francis Cumberbatch, failed to show up due to a reported emergency.
U.S. authorities believe that Kozeny is the mastermind behind a multimillion-dollar scheme to control the state-owned oil company in Azerbaijan in 1998 for a group of U.S. investors.
Kozeny and two others were charged with conspiracy to violate the U.S. 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.
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
