Clayton Lewis — who pleaded guilty in 2005 to conspiracy to violate the FCPA — will wait until at least next February to be sentenced.
Lewis was a partner in Omega Advisors, Inc., a hedge fund that invested and lost about $126 million in Viktor Kozeny’s Azeri privatization scheme. Prosecutors said he knew Kozeny planned to pay bribes but went ahead with the investment anyway.
The DOJ asked Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald for a delay until February 6, 2012. Sentencing had been set for August 4.
In an August 3 letter to the judge, the DOJ said the government would need Lewis’ testimony if Kozeny is ever brought to trial.
Kozeny is still a fugitive in the Bahamas. A court there decided in January last year to block his extradition to the U.S. The Bahamas government is appealing to the U.K. Privy Council — the final court of appeal for some Commonwealth members. The Privy Council, the DOJ said, has accepted the appeal but hasn’t yet scheduled a hearing.
Lewis appeared as a cooperating witness for the government in Frederic Bourke’s 2009 trial. Bourke was convicted of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and sentenced to a year-and-a-day in prison. He’s appealing to the Second Circuit and separately asking the trial court for a new trial.
Download a copy of the DOJ’s August 3, 2011 letter requesting the latest delay in Lewis’ sentencing here.
The case is U.S. v. Clayton Lewis, criminal docket #: 1:03-cr-00930-NRB-1 (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Foley Square)), filed July 31, 2003, assigned to Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald.
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