SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "U.S. offers $22 million from sale of Peak House to Czechs"

It is human nature to focus more on the present than the past. 

Unfortunately, when a community such as Aspen has such a strong history of repetitious behavior patterns, old 'projects' are usually not forgotten.

Terrific story from Chad Abraham today up on the Aspen Daily as the "Pirate of Prague’ reflects on Aspen, bribery allegations".

Chad Abraham:
"The U.S. government is offering $22 million in proceeds from its sale of the Peak House in Aspen — which it seized in 2001 from a man accused of stealing more than $1 billion from investors — to Czech Republic shareholders as restitution, media in Prague reported Tuesday.

On March 28, an appeals court in Britain affirmed the extradition decision by a Bahamas court regarding the home’s former owner, Viktor Kozeny. The lower court refused the U.S. government’s request that Kozeny be extradited to face charges of money laundering, lying to the FBI and violating federal foreign corruption laws.

The so-called “Pirate of Prague” has lived in the Caribbean since 1999, when authorities say he fled the United States with $182 million swindled from investors from Aspen and elsewhere, and $1.1 billion more that was allegedly embezzled from mutual funds in the Czech Republic.

Kozeny, 48, bought the nearly 22,000-square-foot home, the highest residence on Red Mountain, in 1997 for $19.7 million, which was then a record for a real estate sale in the state.

Authorities believe Kozeny used the residence to woo investors for his $450 million plan to control the oil industry of Azerbaijan. The home was eventually seized and sold under a court order to Priceline founder Richard S. Braddock in 2001, who continues to own it......

(lol...local contractors who remember the major gut and remodel Kozeny did after buying it and how hard the peon labor was whipped to perform for this infamous party....will love Kozeny's comment on Aspen's drug culture.  (whisper...whisper...gosh...Viktor's personal beliefs re: drugs in Aspen must have been the reason we were all red-tagged for digging out the secret wine cave "party" room that lies under Peak House now....whisper...whisper....)):

(Abraham).....Among the tactics to lure investors, who included former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell: a lavish Christmas party in 1997 at the Peak House at which Natalie Cole sang and at which the Azerbaijan scheme was allegedly hatched.

Investors were apparently told that their money would be going to Kozeny’s Oily Rock and Minaret companies, which were to buy energy vouchers for the state oil company as Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, looked to privatized industries in the late 1990s.

Instead, federal prosecutors contend Kozeny used his jets to fly in suitcases filled with millions of dollars to bribe Azerbaijan officials. The nation’s oil industry was never privatized.

Kozeny said he doubts the plan was discussed at the Christmas party.

“As to business we all know that’s never discussed at parties in Aspen as everyone is wasted and half of [the] town [is] on cocaine, which is one of the reasons why I prefer Europe where the drug problem is not so severe,” he wrote....." 
(Read more? Click title)

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SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News "Secrets in the city"

".....Most of my friends are pretty opinionated, and not one of them gives a damn whether anyone sees those ballots. The only people who do are those who work for the city, and I’m beginning to wonder what they trying to hide. Seems the city has better things to do with my money.

And as long as we are talking about money, I’m wondering how much it’s going to cost to prosecute our local (alleged) drug dealers. When you take into account how old these guys are it’s going to cost plenty. First we have the cost of incarceration, and then we have to add the cost of medical care for older folks, not to mention the cost of adult diapers.

Look, if these guys were hanging out at the elementary school force feeding drugs to our kids I’d be the first to say string them up, but all they were doing was filling a demand that this city has had for years and years. Assuming they did it, they are kinda like pharmacists.

Many years ago I came up with an idea that I thought would clear the courts of victimless crimes. The idea is that each member of the jury must write a check when they find someone guilty — put your money where your verdict is, so to speak. As a juror you are going to be asking yourself, “How much is this going to cost me?”

Now if you think about it, some people would go free and some laws would be found to be really stupid. On the other hand, some jurors would go to the bank and get a loan to put someone away. Rape, robbery, Bernie Madoff? Where’s my checkbook? Selling something to someone who asked for it? Mmm, not so fast.

Well, I think it’s a good idea. What do you think?..."
(Sheldon Fingerman)

(Great column from Fingerman.  Be sure to click the title and read the rest.  Comment to discuss)