Czech police unable to prosecute the 'Pirate of Prague'
The initial period which followed the end of communism and the transformation of the Czech economy were marred by a number of questionable business activities. Asset stripping, or tunnelling as it is reffered to in the Czech Republic, and curious bankruptcies were not uncommon occurrences. Ask anyone who knows anything about this in the Czech Republic and one name will come up - Viktor Kozeny.
Viktor Kozeny is a notorious figure in the coupon privatisation launched in the early 1990s in the Czech Republic. He set up a company called Harvard Funds to manage the shares of small shareholders - ordinary people who bought shares of state-owned companies - promising them huge returns. But the billions of crowns the shareholders entrusted to his funds mysteriously disappeared in dubious business transactions. Mr. Kozeny fled the country and turned up in the Bahamas having acquired Irish citizenship along the way. The Czech police launched an investigation into his activities in order to bring him to trial. Charges filed against Mr. Kozeny were sent to his lawyer in the Bahamas 20 months ago. Now the prosecution seems to be over as he has refused to accept the charges.
The chief investigator in the case resigned from the police in February. To date the state attorney has not been having any success in the matter either. Police in the Bahamas have refused assistance in delivering the charges, arguing it must have been issued by the court, not by the state attorney.
One of the solutions would be to prosecute Mr. Kozeny as a fugitive. However, this would require strong and clear evidence that proves he fled the country in order to avoid criminal prosecution. To this day Czech police lack such evidence. Another possibility is that the case could be presented to a new chief investigator. However, the chances of Mr. Kozeny being brought to court appear to be slim because of the Bahamas authorities unwillingness to hand over its citizens to courts in other countries.
