Oil from Azerbaijan: A Case of Investor Liability

• Author: Cecil C. Kuhne III
• Pages: 77-82

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Oil from Azerbaijan:

A Case of Investor

Liability

United States v. Ko˘zený

667 F.3d 122 (2nd Cir. 2011)

Dooney & Bourke—the company well known among auent con-

sumers for its ne line of handbags and other leather accessories—was

co-founded by Frederic “Rick” Bourke. Sometime in the mid-1990s,

Bourke met a Czechoslovakian named Viktor Ko ˘zený, who was so infa-

mous for his shady business dealings that Fortune magazine dubbed

him “the Pirate of Prague” after he engaged in massive fraud during

the privatization of state-owned industries in t he Czech Republic, for

which Ko˘zený collected tens of millions of dollars af ter paying bribes

to government oc ials.