31.12.69
By Samuel Rubenfeld
Handbag magnate Frederic Bourke Jr., who co-founded Dooney & Bourke, described in an appeal for a new trial that prosecutors used false testimony to captive him.
Bourke was found guilty in July 2009 of making false statements and violating the Overseas Corrupt Practice Act, and sentenced to a year and a day in prison. A federal appeals court upheld the positiveness in December.
Prosecutors had alleged at his trial that he knew of a plot by Viktor Kozeny, his neighbor in Aspen, Colo., to pay Azerbaijani officials in the late 1990s to let his investment group buy a at risk in the state’s oil company, known as Socar.
In the appeal, filed April 10 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Number two Circuit, Bourke’s lawyers say prosecutors presented imprecise testimony at his trial.
“The government maintains that the prosecutor may sponsor confirmation he knows or should know is false, as long as evidence demonstrating the casuistry is presented to the jury eventually,” the lawyers said in the filing. “Bourke contends that a federal prosecutor may never offer testimony he knows or should know is false.
Source: Wall Street Journal (blog)