NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) – The Bahamas can begin extradition hearings against an Irish businessman wanted in New York on charges of plotting to bribe government officials in the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, prosecutors said yesterday.

Approval for proceedings to begin against investment promoter Viktor Kozeny was given by Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell, Prosecutor Francis Cumberbatch said in magistrate’s court.

Kozeny was charged in a 27-count indictment in US District Court in Manhattan in October. The indictment said Kozeny and two other men tried to buy off senior Azerbaijan officials.

Police in the Bahamas arrested Kozeny at his home in the exclusive gated community of Lyford Cay on October 5, acting on an extradition request issued by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Kozeny has been held at Fox Hill Prison since then. He was admitted to a local hospital on November 28 after he complained of an irregular heartbeat and was scheduled to return to prison yesterday.

A date for Kozeny’s extradition hearings will be determined during his next court appearance on December 12.

The other two men indicted with Kozeny were Frederic Bourke Jr and American International Group executive David Pinkerton.

Azerbaijan, rich in oil resources, began privatising some of its state-owned enterprises in the 1990s. The defendants tried to bribe key decision makers and corrupt the privatization process, according to the US Attorney’s Office in New York.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes were promised and tens of millions of dollars were actually paid in the scheme that ran from August 1997 until about 1999, the US Attorney’s Office has said.