At a lavish Aspen, Colo., holiday party in 1997, luxury handbag mogul Frederic Bourke, Czech speculator Viktor Kozeny and former AIG executive David Pinkerton allegedly hatched an elaborate $450 million scheme to ensure privatization of and a controlling stake in Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company.
The scheme involved millions of dollars in bribes to Azeri officials, with cash flown into the country on Kozeny’s private jet. For a while the scheme seemed to be successful, but as it began to fall apart in 2000, the feds stepped in. They charged Bourke,
