The Pirate of Prague begins with a party. And it’s not a Rice Krispie-buns-and-party-horns affair: this one, which took place in a mansion in Aspen, Colorado, in 1997, involved a seven-course sit-down dinner for 400-plus guests, caviar hors d’oeuvres, Cristal champagne and Château Pétrus wine, and, providing entertainment, Natalie Cole. Those guests included Ivanka Trump and Goldie Hawn. The host, the Jay Gatsby of this lavish affair, was a Czech oligarch called Viktor Kozeny. And the whole extravaganza was a theatrical seduction setting guests up for one of the most staggering swindles of recent history.
What an almighty swindler Kozeny was, somehow managing to persuade many of his party guests, allegedly smart high-rollers who had been round the block more than once, to part with millions upon millions of dollars buying vouchers for the state-owned Azerbaijani oil company Socar. According to Kozeny – who was granted Irish citizenship in 1995, after he invested about €1.3 million in a software firm here – the company was about to be privatised and his lucky acquaintances could get in on the deal.
And why wouldn’t they trust this tall, round-faced, red-haired charmer? After all, he was a Harvard alumnus and one-time member of the exclusive university-based Spee club, with a handshake “like a gorilla”, who boasted a reference from a US Supreme Court justice. If that wasn’t enough, at one point he controlled 15 per cent of the Prague stock exchange, and he owned an island in the Bahamas.
The British ambassador to Azerbaijan knew why they shouldn’t trust him, as he tells it on this podcast. A journalist for Reuters and the Economist, Susan Greenberg, also had his number, as she relays with delicious cattiness: “It was so obvious this man was a bullsh***er.” Kozeny, whose investors included the US senator George Mitchell, had built a house of cards awaiting the ace from Haydar “Baba” Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, whose signature was all that was required to make it rain. And, in a shock twist, the whole thing came tumbling down, bringing with it a lot of very upset investors, an FBI investigation and an indictment for grand larceny by the Manhattan district attorney.
This is the kind of story – replete with wild affairs, Hollywood celebs, bejewelled bribes and even a jailbreak – that make journalists hyperventilate. The pair behind The Pirate of Prague make abundantly clear that they are no exception. Joe Nocera, long-time business reporter for the New York Times and Bloomberg, among other organisations, teams up with Peter Elkin of ProPublica, the independent, non-profit US newsroom, for this scripted two-hander.
Elkin’s clearly the man for the job: he has been reporting on the likes of Kozeny for decades, and even accompanied him in his private jet around the Bahamas on a trip back in 2000. And the two get all manner of amazing sources on the record, from a 101-year-old high-rolling investor to multiple ex-wives to prosecutors to Kozeny’s closest friend from his Harvard days. At times their yuck-yuckery sticks in the craw, and the sound suite is a little overplayed – do we really need the bells and whistles and wine glugs and magic glissandos to carry us through a story like this? Still, they’ve got their hands on a cracking yarn, and they’re enjoying the spinning thereof.
The eight episodes end with a plea to the ever-elusive Kozeny, who is still wanted by Czech and US authorities: “We want to hear everything, Viktor. Your side of the story, all of it, warts and all, from start to finish.” I’d give any amount of expired Czech oil-company vouchers to listen to that.
