Judge to rule on Kozeny extradition case in autumn

The most controversial recipient of the Irish passport for investment scheme is to discover in September whether he is to be extradited to the US on a $110 million (€86.6 million) fraud case.

Victor Kozeny, who used six different Irish passports to enter and leave the US since obtaining citizenship in 1995, has been told by a Bahamas judge that she will make her final decision on his extradition case in mid-September.

Kozeny was arrested in the Bahamas last October following an extradition request from New York federal prosecutors after US investors complained that they had lost millions of dollars in Kozeny's failed bid to privatise a state oil corporation in the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan.

Bahamian judge Carolita Bethel said she will decide the extradition case next month after Kozeny's lawyer argued in court this week that an inter-American anti-corruption convention was signed after Kozeny's alleged offences and could not be used to extradite him to the US.

In June, Judge Bethel ruled that Kozeny could not be extradited on money laundering charges but said that corruption and conspiracy charges remain outstanding.

Prosecutor Francis Cumberbatch will submit his arguments to the court next month.

Kozeny, who is also wanted in the Czech Republic for allegedly defrauding thousands of investors of their life savings, obtained his Irish passport after investing in an Irish biomedical company under the now defunct passport for investment scheme.

It emerged during Bahamian bail proceedings last year that Kozeny used six different Irish passports to enter the US since 1995.

He argued in court that he had various visa documents attached to various individual passports and needed all six.

One of the Irish passports was handed over to Bahamian authorities by his mother, who was staying at his island mansion at the time of his arrest.

Kozeny was refused bail in October, based largely on the disclosure of his multiple passports.