Final Word from Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 today, once said that the thing he was proudest of as U.S. president was the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Stuart E. Eizenstat, an adviser to Carter, wrote in a book that by signing the law in his first year in office, Carter was fulfilling his campaign pledge to abolish bribery and similar crookedness by American multinationals to obtain foreign contracts. As we noted in Oct. 2005, it was this law that allowed the U.S. Justice Dept. to indict Viktor Kožený in May 2005. He had allegedly paid millions of dollars in bribes in Azerbaijan and became subject to the law, as the U.S. saw it, because he had a home in Aspen. Kožený was never extradited from the Bahamas to face trial in the U.S. On Carter's 100th birthday, Kožený can "thank" the former president for signing the law and making him a prisoner of the Caribbean islands. Czechs, for their part, can truly thank Carter for signing the law and helping to keep the "Pirate of Prague" away from Prague for so many years. [ Czech Republic United States Colorado White House years ]