The federal jury in Manhattan convicted Frederic Bourke, the co-founder of US Company Dooney & Bourke, of conspiring to pay bribes to government leaders in Azerbaijan in a 1998 oil deal, Bloomberg reports.

Jurors found Bourke conspired with Czech expatriate Viktor Kozeny to bribe to Azerbaijan leaders including former President Heidar Aliyev to spur the sale of the “Azneft” State Oil Company (known as SOCAR). Azerbaijan never sold Socar, wiping out the investment.

The verdict is a win for U.S. prosecutors as they step up enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the law that bars payments to non-U.S. officials in return for business.

Bourke, 63, was on trial for investing with Kozeny knowing he gave Azeri leaders millions of dollars in cash and a secret two-thirds interest in a venture Kozeny formed to buy Socar.

Bourke was accused of conspiring to violate the FCPA, conspiring to violate money-laundering laws and lying to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was acquitted of money laundering. U.S. District Judge said she will impose less than the 10-year prison sentence that prosecutors said Bourke faced. He is free on $10 million bail.

Bourke, a Greenwich, Connecticut, entrepreneur who launched startups in the home-building, accessory and biotechnology industries, denied knowing of the bribes. His lawyers said Kozeny stole more than $180 million from Bourke and other investors including the hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc. and the insurer American International Group. A Bourke investment vehicle put up $8 million in the deal.

Kozeny, who also has been charged, is a fugitive living in the Bahamas. He admits bribing Azeri leaders, denies stealing from his investors and claims they knew their money was being used as payoffs. He says the FCPA doesn’t apply to him.

Trial witnesses told of plane flights into Azerbaijan with millions of dollars stuffed into suitcases, of shakedowns in government offices, and of dealings with Chechen mobsters who provided protection to Kozeny’s operation.

Kozeny said his investors might control about half of the Azeri economy if they captured Socar. Others believed their investment might grow tenfold, witnesses said.

Prosecutors also offered evidence that Bourke “consciously avoided” learning about the bribes by not asking questions about them. Jurors were allowed to convict if they found Bourke knew or took steps to avoid learning of the payments.

The defense sought to poke holes in Farrell’s and Bodmer’s accounts and said Bourke believed Azeri leaders had lawfully paid for their stake in the company Kozeny formed to buy Socar.

Besides the president, intended bribe recipients included current President Ilham Aliyev and two officials overseeing the sale of state property in 1998, prosecutors said. Along with Farrell and Bodmer, a former Omega executive has pleaded guilty.

Kozeny’s lawyer, said the verdict “does not affect Mr. Kozeny, who has always maintained that the FCPA does not apply to him because he is not a citizen” of the U.S. The U.S. says it’s appealing a Bahamian court’s refusal to extradite him.

This is not the only trial against CIS high rank officials in the US. Among cause celebres those with Ukrainian Prime-Minister Pavel Lazarenko and the “Kazakhgate” case. The centre of the scandal was James Giffen, an American businessman and former advisor of Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev in the mid 90s. According to US prosecutors, Giffen paid $78 million bribe to Nazarbayev and former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, to secure contracts over the Kashagan oil fields for Western companies. Giffen was arrested in 2003 and charged by the US attorney's office of the Southern District of New York with violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1974. According to the federal bribery charges, Giffen is accused of creating Swiss bank accounts and transferring $20 million, paying tuition at exclusive boarding schools for family members of Kazakh officials, and buying millions of dollars in jewelry. He faces up to 88 years in prison if he is found guilty on all charges and only 4-7 years if he is found guilty only on tax evasion charges.

Strangely, such cause celebres in US Court commence unexpectedly and exactly when Washington’s relations are strained with the country, officials of which appear in the case. Apparently, “Azergate” is not an exception, suffice to recall President Ilham Aliyev’s refusal to meet with Barack Obama in Turkey, Baku politicians’ constant hit hard at Matthew Bryza and the recent Azerbaijani gas treaty with Russia.