The Swiss lawyer who pleaded guilty in 2004 to helping move money used to bribe Azeri officials hasn’t been sentenced, and court records indicate no sentencing date is pending.
Hans Bodmer, 57, faces up to ten years in prison for a money laundering conspiracy while he worked for Viktor Kozeny. His sentencing has been postponed several times since his guilty plea eight years ago. The last date the judge set was February 17, 2011. After it passed without Bodmer being sentenced, the DOJ didn’t ask for a new sentencing date. Bodmer has since returned to Switzerland with the DOJ’s consent.
He provided key testimony against Frederic Bourke in a 2009 trial. A jury convicted Bourke of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and lying to FBI agents. Bourke was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. He’s free on bail while he appeals his conviction.
Bodmer was also supposed to testify against his old boss, Viktor Kozeny. But in March this year, the U.K. Privy Council ruled that Kozeny, the alleged mastermind behind an Azeri bribery scheme, can’t be extradited from the Bahamas to the Unites States to face prosecution.
Before the Privy Council issued its ruling, the DOJ had asked the judge several times to delay Bodmer’s sentencing until Kozeny could be brought back to New York to face prosecution.
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