The defence team in the Viktor Kozeny extradition trial has decided to close its case via not providing any evidence to the court nor calling any witnesses to the stand.
Yesterday, Kozeny’s lawyer Clive Nicholls told Magistrate Carolita Bethel that his team was not going to lead a defence. Instead, he tried to get the magistrate to conduct a review of her June ruling that found the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption (ICAC) applicable in Kozeny’s case. When Magistrate Bethel refused to allow a review of her ruling, Mr Nicholls was then forced to give his argument to the court as to why his client should not be subjected to the ICAC rules.
Since Kozeny was arrested on October 5, 2005, the case has received widespread attention from countries wanting to arrest him, as well as in his home country. Mr Kozeny was charged on Oct 2, 2003 with grand larceny. The charges stemmed from a 2002 case where he allegedly defrauded clients of New York Company Omega Advisors Inc. of $182 million in his dealings in Azerbaijan in 1998. He could face 25 years in prison in the U.S. The troubled financier has been known as a flashy spender who owned two planes and a 165-foot yacht. Fortune Magazine who reported that in 2000, he built a $14 million swimming pool, the size of a small lake, at his Lyford Cay home, has recognized him.
He also reportedly used $3 million to buy luxury home furnishings and other items for his homes in Lyford Cay and Aspen, Colorado. Mr Kozeny’s assets have been frozen and the lawsuits against him, filed in courts in the U S, Britain, The Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands, have been pending the criminal investigation in New York.
Mr Kozeny has managed to avoid arrest in these countries and has been living in The Bahamas since 1993.
According to the lawyer, since his client’s alleged corruption acts took place outside of The Bahamas, there is no way that this country should establish the jurisdiction over transnational bribery.
He then gave three key points as to why he does not believe the ICAC ruling should apply to this case. Mr Nicholls reiterated that The Bahamas is not required to establish jurisdiction on bribery charges, which are transnational, as opposed to those that are domestic. Secondly, he added, the alleged offences are not crucial to The Bahamas and finally, transnational bribery is not an offence in Bahamian law, adding that this country is one of few which have not yet signed up to make transnational bribery a crime.
According to the ICAC ruling, transnational bribery requires each state party to prohibit and punish the offering or granting, directly or indirectly, by its nationals and persons residing in its territory to a government official of another State, of money or gifts, favours, promises or advantages, in connection with any economic or commercial transaction in exchange for any act or omission in the performance of that official’s public functions. For these reasons, Mr Nicholls argued, Mr Kozeny’s alleged corruption and bribery scheme has no effect in The Bahamas, only Azerbaijan.
But prosecutor Francis Cumberbatch said because of his involvement in another capital case, he was unable to respond to the defence yesterday. Therefore, Magistrate Bethel gave him an August 21 deadline to submit his written response. The defence will then submit their response ten days later and the court will make its final ruling on September 18, provided that both responses are clearly understood.
By: IANTHIA SMITH, The Nassau Guardian
