NEW YORK (AP) — A Swiss lawyer charged with conspiring to bribe Azerbaijani officials to push through the privatization of the state oil company can be released on bail over the objections ofprosecutors, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Hans Bodmer, 48, a lawyer and administrative tax court judge in Switzerland, was extradited to the United States on Jan. 16, after five months in a South Korean jail after his August arrest while he attended the University Games as a legal adviser.
U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin said Bodmer can be released on $1.5 million bail but must wear an electronic bracelet that will permit him to leave a Washington-area home only for trial preparation, court appearances and medical attention.
“We’re pleased that he was released. He looks forward to responding to the charges and clearing his good name,” said his lawyer, Robert S. Bennett.
A message left with prosecutors was not immediately returned.
Bodmer was charged in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Money Laundering Act.
Prosecutors said he worked as a lawyer for several entities when he allegedly paid bribes and authorized the payment of bribes to various Azeri officials to promote the privatization of state oil company SOCAR in the late 1990s.
The U.S. government said Bodmer was a risk to flee with some of the more than $2.4 million that prosecutors estimate.
Scheindlin disagreed, saying bail was sufficient and the government was engaging in “mere speculation” when it says Bodmer is wealthier than his own records indicate.
The judge said the argument that the Swiss will not extradite Swiss citizens also fails.
“This argument alone cannot be a basis for denying bail because if taken to its logical conclusion, no Swiss national would ever be eligible for bail,” she said.
The Zurich law firm of Von Meiss Blum & Partners, of which Bodmer was a member at the time, has said the arrest followed a long civil dispute in which former clients of the lawyer and others had filed complaints against each other in connection with the case.
Bodmer was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York last September for conspiracy to bribe the Azeri officials to ensure the privatization, which ultimately failed.
Bodmer “used various methods to offer to pay and to pay money and other things of value to the Azeri officials,” the 24-page indictment charges.
Bodmer allegedly helped launder more than $150 million in investment funds from the United States, often by shipping millions by private chartered jet.
Bodmer was working on behalf of Omega Advisors, a New York City hedge fund, according to court papers.
