Viktor Kozeny’s security chief told a jury how the Czech expatriate brought ex-Senator George Mitchell into a deal to buy Azerbaijan’s oil company, spent $96,000 on a dinner for six, and befriended powerful American investors.

John Pulley, who provided security for Kozeny, took the witness stand yesterday in Manhattan federal court on the first day of testimony in the bribery trial of Connecticut entrepreneur Frederic Bourke. Bourke is accused of conspiring with Kozeny to bribe leaders in Azerbaijan, which borders the Caspian Sea, in a failed 1998 deal to buy the state oil company.

Prosecutors used Pulley’s testimony to link Bourke to Kozeny, explain how Kozeny brought influential investors like Mitchell into the deal, and lived an extravagant lifestyle. Kozeny, who’s also been charged in the case, has successfully fought extradition from his home in the Bahamas.

“He had a yacht, he had an island, he was having a house renovated in London, and he was building in Nassau,” Pulley, a former agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, testified. “His entourage, when we travelled, was five people.”

Kozeny made headlines in 1997 after paying about $20,000 for lunch for three people at London’s Le Gavroche. Pulley said he was one of three at the lunch. Pulley also testified about a private dinner in 1998 at the St. Regis hotel in New York, where Kozeny hosted Bourke, money manager Aaron Fleck, and two or three others. It cost about $96,000, Pulley said.

“Wine,” Pulley testified, when asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Iris Lin why both meals were so costly.

‘Many Nice Dinners’

“Yes, we had many nice dinners,” Kozeny wrote yesterday in an e-mail to Bloomberg News. “Nice Petrus 1945 and a great uncut Cuban cigar.” He said that was “indeed the norm for oligarchs those days.”

Bourke, 63, is accused of conspiring with Kozeny in a $350 million deal to bribe Azeri leaders so they would sell the oil company, known as Socar, for pennies on the dollar. He faces 30 years in jail if convicted of a money-laundering and bribery conspiracy.

Other investors included Mitchell, who was Bourke’s friend, hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc., insurer American International Group Inc. and GE Investment Corp. Azerbaijan never sold Socar, wiping out those and other investments. Bourke, who lives in Greenwich, put up $8 million. Mitchell, a Maine Democrat who left Congress in 1995, invested $200,000.

Special Envoy

Bourke, Mitchell and other investors have denied knowing of Kozeny’s alleged bribery scheme. Mitchell is now the U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace. He didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Pulley testified that Bourke accompanied Kozeny on repeated trips to Azerbaijan, sometimes with fellow investors such as Fleck or fund manager Tom McCloskey. Bourke and Kozeny, who were neighbors in Aspen, Colorado, met early in 1997 and became fast friends, Pulley said.

Early in 1998, Pulley said he and Kozeny flew from the Bahamas to Florida on the Czech’s private jet for a dinner at a restaurant, where Bourke and Mitchell were waiting for them.

Bourke “introduced me to Senator Mitchell and said Senator Mitchell was considering investing in Baku,” Pulley said. Later, after Pulley returned to the table, Bourke said that “Mitchell had decided to join them,” Pulley said.

Later that year, Kozeny flew Mitchell to Baku, Azerbaijan, for the official opening of Kozeny’s brokerage, Minaret Group, where Mitchell made some remarks, Pulley said.

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