REVIEW: Apple's new 'Pirate of Prague' podcast glamorizes a Czech fraudster

A new Apple Original podcast looks at the outrageous and extravagant life of Viktor Kožený, one of the most infamous Czech financial fraudsters of modern times.

Think The Great Gatsby meets The Wolf of Wall Street meets Bernie Madoff meets Catch Me If You Can. The life of Viktor Kožený is the stuff films are made of. Or at least podcasts.

In a new Apple Original eight-episode series, host Joe Nocera and investigative journalist Peter Elkind retrace the steps of the infamous “Pirate of Prague” from his humble beginnings in communist Czechoslovakia to his current non-extradition retreat in the Bahamas.

“The thing about bad guys is you often can’t help but like them,” narrator Nocera announces from the get-go.

An admission that rings almost too sincere throughout the series, which may have benefitted from a more thorough investigation of the crimes committed by the Czech "wunderkind," and a bit less at marveling goggle-eyed at the glitz of the ultra-rich’s eccentric lifestyle.

The glamorization of a man who spent decades swindling out of their money both the ultra-wealthy on the Aspen mountaintops and your everyday Joe in 1990s Czechoslovakia may be the most obvious pitfall of the podcast, of which five episodes have for now been released.

Given the subject matter, the “Pirate of Prague” podcast nevertheless grips you from the start as Nocera and Elkind kick off their journey by visiting the ultra-rich gated communities of the Bahamas where now 60-year-old Kožený, facing charges in both the U.S. and the Czech Republic, has found refuge.

Thanks to the multiple testimonies of people who both revered and despised him, a clearer image slowly emerges of a man consistently described as unusually charismatic and lethally charming, a man of incredible intelligence, initiative, and ardor; a man, also, who wouldn’t hesitate for a second to manipulate, lie and cheat to get what he wants – which commonly involved greenbacks, and lots of them.

Some parts, like when he allegedly smooth-talked his way into Harvard University after having fled communist Czechoslovakia, may remind us of the cunning skills of a Frank Abagnale, Leonardo DiCaprio’s charmingly resourceful character in Catch Me If You Can.

But as episodes go by and money outrageously accumulates through successive dubious Ponzi schemes, we see Kožený join the 0.1 percent of the world’s elite and morph closer to an almost mythical figure throwing the most lavish, glamorous, and glitzy parties of the time.

And while those may have been Gatsby’s attempt to attract his long-lost Daisy, these were Kožený’s carefully set trap to rob the rich and powerful of their millions, most notably in the infamous oil-rich Azerbaijani privatization scheme.

The life of Viktor Kožený, with its strange blend of fantastical myth and cutthroat reality, is surely a topic worth exploring, especially for those seeking to better understand Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s.

But while providing a good introduction to the topic, “The Pirate of Prague” podcast, unfortunately, falls short of truly distinguishing between the man and the legend he so painstakingly and meticulously crafted over the last decades.