Translation of Adam Kesher’s post from Russian-language neweurasia Kazakhstan.

James Giffen, a 65-year old American businessman, charged by the US Prosecutor with paying the bribes to top officials in Kazakhstan, will be able to use his “defense of state interests” position in the trial. This decision was announced on Friday, 26 January, by the Federal Court of Appeal. According to New York’s Timothy O’Connor, Giffen insists that in four years (between 1995 and 1999) of his term of office as President Nazarbayev’s consultant, he channeled about 80 million dollars as bribes to a number of officials of this Central Asian country, thus performing secret mission of the US special services.

Giffen, the owner of a small bank Mercator with the office on prestigious Lexington Avenue, is accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Giffen’s case is the biggest since the establishment of the act in 1977. He faces up to 88 years in prison if he is found guilty on all charges and only 4-7 years for non-payment of taxes (which he does not deny) – if he proves that the US Government stood behind his actions.

The prosecutors say that they have revealed his methods of bribing the officials in this oil-rich country through “kick-backs” from American companies that got the right to develop the oil deposits. They think that this way Giffen was rewarding for his mediator’s position when concluding the oil contracts – opening bank accounts in Switzerland, paying for the education of the children of Kazakhstani officials in elite foreign schools, spending millions of dollars on jewelry, snowmobiles, furs and telecommunications equipment.

Giffen was arrested on 30 March, 2003, in Kennedy airport of New York when he was attempting to board a plane to Kazakhstan. He was carrying a Kazakhstani diplomatic passport, even though dual citizenship is prohibited by Kazakhstani laws. In Kazakhstan, where the circumstances of the case, dubbed “Kazakhgate”, were widely known, the news was received as a joke. However, very soon this scandalous case turned into one of the main instruments of counter-propaganda of the local opposition.

Back then, almost four years ago, Giffen was let out on $10 million property bail and quarter million in cash. In spring 2005 Giffen suddenly started his own game, obviously deciding to give in his Kazakhstani patrons in exchange for a lesser term for himself. Following his new defense strategy, Giffen stops denying the facts of bribery, says that all this time he was working for the CIA and the State Department and demands declassifying numerous documents from archives.

Many observers thought that the strategy was a blackmail based on nothing and aimed simply at prolonging the process. Deciding on whether Giffen can insist on opening up the secret materials took almost two years. The court supported Giffen in the end, reckoning that the accused should be able to exhaust all the possibilities to prove his innocence. So, last Friday the Court of Appeals supported the lower court and dismissed the prosecutors’ appeal.

In the last two years one former high-ranking official of Mobil company (now ExxonMobil) was convicted for tax evasion. Brian Williams was held responsible in 1996 for the agreement that stipulated his company’s purchase of 25% share in Tengiz oil field. The cost of the contract was more than $1 billion. Williams himself was getting “kick-backs”, which he admitted, and got 46 months of imprisonment in September 2003. This summer he will be released. The oil company itself was not charged.

Kazakhstan’s reaction throughout this slow proceeding scandal stayed almost the same – the case deals with the American citizen and has nothing to do with our country. Nevertheless, it is known that some American attorneys addressed the US Department of Justice on behalf of Kazakhstan requesting to stop the proceedings taking into account the strategic importance of US relations with Kazakhstan. Several times the President and his family mentioned Giffen in public, portraying him positively.

The majority of analysts hold the opinion that Giffen is more likely an adventurous and shifty mediator with some connections in the government, rather than a spy on a secret mission. He became the main character of the book by a former CIA agent Robert Bauer “See No Evil” – there Giffen is nicknamed “Mr. Kazakhstan”, and all foreign investors pass through his office. Last year George Clooney produced his film “Syriana” based on the book – Giffen’s character is played by Tim Blake Nelson.

Giffen claims that he started spying long time ago. He maintains that he was an unofficial messenger between the USA and the USSR during the “Cold War”, and met with the agents regularly, informing them in 1995 about the bank accounts in Switzerland and corruption schemes at Tengiz. He began working with the USSR in 1973, starting with the delivery of Armco drilling equipment to Russia. Russian sources write that Moscow warned Kazakhstan about Giffen’s espionage in 1996-1998.

The text of the indictment from the website of the United States Department of Justice