How the Pirate of Prague got away with it: Czech fraudster sweet-talked his way into Mayfair circles and hosted Ivana Trump at his Aspen mansion before running off with millions in investors' money - and two decades later he's still at large
- The Pirate of Prague is a new podcast made by Apple TV+ / Blanchard House
- READ MORE: The devious scam that cost us our retirement pot
The story of a Czech fraudster who once nearly owned all the oil in Azerbaijan - and hosted a swanky million dollar Aspen party attended by VIPs including Ivana Trump - has been recounted in a new podcast.
The Pirate of Prague - by Apple TV+ / Blanchard House - named in honour of the scammer's nickname, tells the tale of the financier's fantastical rise to renown.
Smooth-talking, charming Viktor Kožený was distinguished by his trademark red hair and big grin, towering at more than 6ft tall.
He used his magnetic charisma to worm his way into everywhere from Harvard University to Le Gavroche in Mayfair - and is still internationally wanted despite hiding away in the Bahamas.
Over the years he had managed to talk his way into the world of financing - drawing Wall Street's wealthiest personnel into his schemes - after leaving his native Czechoslovakia at the age of 16, in the 80s, in search of glory.
![The story of a Czech fraudster who once nearly owned all the oil in Azerbaijan - and hosted a swanky million dollar Aspen party attended by VIPs including Ivana Trump - has been recounted in a new podcast. Pictured being led out of a courthouse in Nassau, Bahamas, 2005](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/13/16/82426129-13191653-image-a-1_1710347078472.jpg)
The story of a Czech fraudster who once nearly owned all the oil in Azerbaijan - and hosted a swanky million dollar Aspen party attended by VIPs including Ivana Trump - has been recounted in a new podcast. Pictured being led out of a courthouse in Nassau, Bahamas, 2005
He is most famous for stirring up a 1994 scandal in the notoriously corrupt - but very oil-rich - Azerbaijan.
While the nation was in the process of considering privatising SOCAR - its state-run oil company - Viktor wanted to get in on the ground floor.
He got more than $400 million handed to him by US investors, including the likes of AIG and Columbia University, who were swayed by his promises of incredible returns.
But once Azerbaijan decided not to privatise, Viktor was alleged to have taken off with 'north of $90 million', according to Fortune.
The aftermath saw the 'Pirate' embroiled in legal drama, as he faced serious allegations of bribing Azerbaijani officials.
However, despite his grandiose endeavours, Viktor's leap to the top wasn't always so glamorous.
Despite the difficulties that came with leaving the Soviet Union, by 1982 Viktor is confirmed to have been in West German Munich, with his eye on a renowned theoretical physicist doing a talk there.
Speaking to the podcast, Marlan Scully revealed how an 18-year-old Viktor made a striking first impression by approaching him after a lecture.
![The Pirate of Prague - by Apple TV+ / Blanchard House - named in honour of the scammer's nickname, tells the tale of the financier's fantastical rise to renown. Pictured in Prague, 1992](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/13/17/82426131-13191653-The_Pirate_of_Prague_by_Apple_TV_Blanchard_House_named_in_honour-a-20_1710349245259.jpg)
The Pirate of Prague - by Apple TV+ / Blanchard House - named in honour of the scammer's nickname, tells the tale of the financier's fantastical rise to renown. Pictured in Prague, 1992
'A kid came up... He said, "look, I'd really like to talk to you about my research. Here's my stuff,"' he explained.
'He showed me a stack of calculations. It looked realistic, the right tone of mathematical rigour. I said "look why don't you come to the University of New Mexico and join us there."
'Next thing I knew, he showed up at my door... the kid had hutzpah.'
But soon enough Marlan started to clock that Viktor was a 'bulls***ter' - noting that he wasn't even able to write out 'Maxwell's equations' - a staple for any physicist.
The professor was suspicious of Viktor, but still reached to his colleague - Graham Flint - to see if he could accommodate the young man.
Graham, who lived in a huge New Mexico home with his wife Diane - then 37 - and their three children, agreed to take him in as a babysitter.
'He sat the kids alright... babysat Diane as well,' Marlan said.
'Viktor and Diane showed up at my office and announced that they were getting married... I tried to talk her into not doing this but she said "no we're going to do it".
'She obviously was under his spell.'
By 1983, the couple got married in Boston, and soon, Viktor - who notoriously had bad grades for everything except PE back in school - had somehow got into an undergraduate course at the elite Harvard University.
![Smooth-talking, charming Viktor Ko¿ený was distinguished by his trademark red hair, big grin, towering at more than 6ft tall. Pictured in Los Angeles in 1998](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/13/16/82426125-13191653-image-a-3_1710347088321.jpg)
Smooth-talking, charming Viktor Kožený was distinguished by his trademark red hair, big grin, towering at more than 6ft tall. Pictured in Los Angeles in 1998
![He used his magnetic charisma to worm his way into everywhere from Harvard College to Le Gavroche in Mayfair. Pictured being led out of a courthouse in Nassau, Bahamas, 2005](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/23/07/82426127-13191653-He_used_his_magnetic_charisma_to_worm_his_way_into_everywhere_fr-a-1_1711177643129.jpg)
He used his magnetic charisma to worm his way into everywhere from Harvard College to Le Gavroche in Mayfair. Pictured being led out of a courthouse in Nassau, Bahamas, 2005
It may come as no surprise that he embellished his records a lot - claiming to have won academic prizes for mathematics and physics in Czechoslovakia.
Diane and Viktor's tryst didn't last long - the pair divorced in 1986 after she reportedly got fed up of him burning through her money, having affairs and even allegedly taking drugs.
In his final year at Harvard, he met his second wife - Kendall Callahan. Speaking to the podcast, Kendall revealed that after one chance meeting with him, she called her friend to say she had 'just met the man she was going to marry'.
In 1989, he made use of his charm once again to get a job at Flemings - a London investment bank - after presenting himself as a 'genius' and the 'best student that Harvard had ever had'. He got the job on the spot.
While the stint was only short lived - he was fired after a few months - it opened Viktor's world to the industry.
He used that experience to seize the opportunity when communism began to crumble across the old Soviet Empire - and jumped into the privatisation market back home in Prague.
At the time, Czech state assets were being privatised by a system in which citizens were encouraged to buy vouchers - which were extremely cheap - to bid for shares in state-owned enterprises.
As reported by the Telegraph, Viktor 'convinced the new government to let him help' - and 'offered to manage ordinary people's vouchers in return for the promise of spectacular returns'.
His firm was - audaciously - called Harvard Capital & Consulting, in a shoutout to his American schooling and a move to appear more financially savvy than his Eastern bloc peers.
![As reported by the Telegraph , Viktor 'convinced the new government to let him help' - and 'offered to manage ordinary people's vouchers in return for the promise of spectacular returns'. Pictured outside his firm in Prague, in 1993](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/13/16/82426167-13191653-image-m-10_1710347506770.jpg)
As reported by the Telegraph , Viktor 'convinced the new government to let him help' - and 'offered to manage ordinary people's vouchers in return for the promise of spectacular returns'. Pictured outside his firm in Prague, in 1993
According to the outlet, it only took around a year for Viktor's company to control 'dozens of major Czech companies, including banks, steel mills and breweries'.
As quoted by Radio Prague International, economist Jan Schiesser said: 'He actually played a very important role at the very beginning when he promised a "tenfold value" through his investment funds and this marketing campaign actually triggered people to buy the vouchers and put the shares into investment funds.'
Viktor was a booming success - Harvard's assets went up to $1 billion - and it is perhaps no wonder, as the fraudster had contacts with high government officials who were likely able to offer insight on the best state assets.
But soon, scandal began to mar his business's reputation after allegations of Viktor acquiring state secrets starting flying around - so he fled the border, with his eye now on the Azerbaijan oil scheme.
Writing for Fortune in 2000, journalist Peter Elkind - who co-presents the The Pirate of Prague - described how Viktor, now on his third wife, Ludka (his former secretary) rounded up investors with a Gatsby-style party in Aspen, where he had just bought a $19.7 million chalet in cash.
Some 500 people were thought to be in attendance - with everyone from Goldie Hawn to Ivana Trump mingling in crowds - featuring a performance from Natalie Cole.
It's thought that food and drink altogether cost around $1,500 per head, and guests left with gift bags from Asprey & Garrard.
Among those seduced by the glitz and glamour was Frederic Bourke, of luxury handbag firm Dooney & Bourke.
![Goldie Hawn, pictured in 1997, in Beverly Hills, was said to be among those in attendance at the glitzy party in Aspen](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/13/16/82426839-13191653-image-a-12_1710347718201.jpg)
Goldie Hawn, pictured in 1997, in Beverly Hills, was said to be among those in attendance at the glitzy party in Aspen
![Even Ivana Trump (centre, in a stock image) was reportedly amid the guests at the Gatsby-style party in Aspen thrown by Viktor](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/13/16/82426851-13191653-image-a-13_1710347755850.jpg)
Even Ivana Trump (centre, in a stock image) was reportedly amid the guests at the Gatsby-style party in Aspen thrown by Viktor
Also eventually drawn into Viktor's circle was former American International Group Inc. director David Pinkerton.
Despite attracting a flurry of foreign investors, months and months of waiting signalled that they were being 'swindled' by the Azerbaijan authorities.
Fortune reported that the government was seemingly more interested in stringing them along to raise money from sale privatisation 'options'.
On October 5, 2005, RadioFreeEurope reported that Viktor was arrested in the Bahamas - with an indictment 'describing a scheme allegedly devised by Kozeny to bribe top Azerbaijani officials in the late 1990s'.
The next day, two American defendants - Pinkerton and Bourke - surrendered to the FBI.
Charges against David were later dismissed, but Frederic was ultimately fined $1 million and sentence to a year in prison, Forbes reports.
It is understood that Viktor was released from prison in 2007, and has since been living in the Bahamas, where is essentially confined to. A US extradition request was denied.
In 2008, Prague Municipal Court reportedly started a court case against him and business partner Boris Vostrý, but he didn't attend the trial.
Two years later a Czech court convicted him of fraud and sentenced him to 10 years, along with damages worth hundreds of millions - but Viktor is still understood to be in the Bahamas, holding an Irish passport.
According to the Irish Times, he obtained it under 'the controversial "passports for investment" scheme.
He is still internationally wanted by the US and Czech criminal justice systems.