American Convicted of Bribing Azerbaijani Leaders

Frederic Bourke, a well-known U.S. businessman, was convicted by a U.S. jury of conspiring to pay bribes to government leaders of Azerbaijan in a 1998 oil privatization deal. Bourke invested $8 mln in the deal allegedly knowing that his partner Viktor Kozeny, a Chech expatriate, intended to bribe then Azerbaijan President Heidar Aliyev and now-President Ilham Aliyev. In the end, the Azerbaijani authorities refused to proceed with the privatization, which wiped out the investment. Bourke was found guilty of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and may get a 10-year prison sentence.

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