An international warrant has been issued for Kožený, who in the early 1990s ran one of the great scams of the post-Communist era.
In 2010, Kožený was convicted of fraud by a Czech court and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and ordered to pay damages equal to hundreds of millions in USD.
An enforcement action based on this judgement has been lodged by the fraud victim in New York, targeting assets frozen by US authorities.
[2] Harvard Funds bought shares in a number of companies, stripped assets and transferred the money abroad to offshore tax havens like the Bahamas.
This scam turned out to be a huge success for Kožený and those working with him, who allegedly stole millions of dollars from investors in his funds.
[2] The country was considering privatizing its state run oil company SOCAR, and Kožený offered his services.
The paper admitted Kožený may have been tricked by some officials, but rejected his claim that President Aliev made any commitments to his group.
[8] Kožený faced a serious legal action by famed Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who had filed an indictment in New York for his bribery of Azeri officials.