NEW YORK — Former American International Group Inc. director David Pinkerton won dismissal of federal charges accusing him of conspiring with Czech expatriate Viktor Kozeny to bribe government leaders in Azerbaijan in a failed 1998 oil deal.
A federal judge in New York on Tuesday granted a Justice Department request to dismiss charges including bribery against Pinkerton, 47, according to court records.
Still facing charges are Frederic Bourke, co- founder of luxury bag maker Dooney & Bourke, and Kozeny, who at one time lived in Aspen and has fought extradition from the Bahamas.
“We have always known that David Pinkerton is completely innocent,” his lawyer, Barry Berke, said in an interview. “Now that these charges have been entirely dismissed, Mr. Pinkerton looks forward to resuming his career.”
Prosecutors alleged in 2005 that Kozeny, while living in Colorado, agreed to pay millions of dollars in bribes to government officials in the Caspian Sea nation in a bid to seize control of state-owned oil company Socar. Pinkerton, who invested with Kozeny, was accused of knowing of the payments and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. anti-bribery law.
Last year, the trial judge dismissed all but four criminal counts against Pinkerton, of Bernardsville, N.J., and Bourke, of Greenwich, Conn., saying prosecutors waited too long before filing the case in 2005.
