The weapons baron who he really is. Arms baron: actors, their roles and plot. Prosecution and trial

The world of the international arms trade quite often attracts the attention of filmmakers. But often the action in them unfolds according to a somewhat far-fetched plan, unrealistic. From this point of view, the new film Weapon Baron” compares favorably with all the others - it is built on a real story. The legacy of the Cold War is a huge amount of weapons that were supplied from the former Soviet republics to developing countries (especially African ones), bringing gigantic profits to their sellers.

In Ukraine alone, between 1982 and 1992, weapons worth $32 billion were stolen. And not a single culprit was found and punished.

Starring: NICOLAS CAGE ("Leaving Las Vegas", "Face Off", "Con Air", "The Rock") and Ethan Hawke ("Taking Lives", "Training Day", "Gattaca", "Reality Bites" , "Dead Poets Society"), as well as BRIDGET MOYNAHAN ("I'm a Robot", "Coyote Ugly Bar"), JERED LETO ("Panic Room", "Fight Club", "Requiem for a Dream", "American Psycho" ) and IAN HOLM (The Lord of the Rings, The Aviator, The Day After Tomorrow, The Glorious Future, Aliens).

Plot

Yuri Orlov was born in Ukraine during the Soviet era and emigrated to America as a child with his parents, who provided false documents about their alleged Jewish origin.

His parents opened a kosher restaurant on Brighton Beach in New York. But one day, caught in the crossfire of rival gangs, he comes to the conclusion that he has long been sick of the miserable business, that it was created for something more.

Yuri persuaded his younger brother Vitaly to engage in the arms trade. They have found their niche in the underground sector, selling weapons to regimes subject to international sanctions.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 comes in handy for Yuri. He immediately goes to Ukraine, knowing that there are mountains of weapons that have not found any use, since the enemy in the face of the West no longer exists.

Yuriy recruits a general of the Ukrainian army as an ally. He mainly sells weapons to the warring countries of Africa, skillfully circumventing the embargo. By the mid-90s, Yuri's fortune reaches the level of his fictions about his own wealth and even surpasses them.

But the life situation, the death of his brother, the collapse of the family, the renunciation of his parents lead to the fact that the weapons king is alone with himself. This is where the worst begins...

Actors about their characters

NICOLAS CAGE ON YURI ORLOV

“The first time I read the script, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to play this character because I was afraid that he went too deep into me, and also because of what he really does. But at the same time, it seems to me that he has reached a certain point and believes that what he is doing might eventually ... No, I do not want to reveal my thoughts, because you yourself must make up your own about him opinion, and it is much more interesting than what I could tell.

JERED LETO ABOUT VITALY ORLOV

“I play Vitaly, Yuri's younger brother, his criminal partner and his conscience. In our film, I am given the role of an innocent dreamer, a person who strives to achieve a lot, but cannot even understand what exactly. He cannot figure out how to fulfill his desires and loses faith in his own strength.

ANDREW NIKCOL - Writer, Director, Producer. His directorial debut was the film "Gattaca" (Gattaca) according to his own script. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Gattaca was nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction and a Golden Globe for Best Music.
The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey, on which Niccol worked as a writer and producer, was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Screenplay, and Niccol won an Academy Award for best script.
Niccol directed, wrote and produced the film S1MONE, starring Al Pacino, and wrote and executive produced Steven Spielberg's The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The film "Lord of War" is released on Russian screens on February 2, 2006.

Read about the latest movie premieres.

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"Lord of War"(en Lord of War) is a 2005 American film directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Nicolas Cage. Released in the United States on September 16, 2005. The film was released on DVD on January 17, 2006, and on Blu-ray on July 27, 2006.

Cage plays a semi-legal arms dealer who, working with the tacit connivance of the US government, supplies weapons to various rebels, dictators and terrorists around the world. It is believed that the prototype of his character is Victor Bout. The film was officially approved by Amnesty International as it showed the dangers of the arms trade. Movie slogan: "The first rule of an arms dealer is don't get shot with your own merchandise"

Plot

A film about the story of a native of the former USSR, namely from Odessa, who became one of the world's largest illegal arms dealers. Yuri Orlov's parents emigrated from Ukraine to the United States and settled in Brighton Beach, where they opened a small restaurant. Children were not eager to follow in their parents' footsteps. Yuri, thinking about what to do, came to the conclusion: the most profitable thing is to trade in weapons. Because in a world full of aggression, weapons are never superfluous. It is necessary both for relatives fighting with each other, and for rival gangs, and for warring states. Yuri began to supply weapons (Uzi submachine guns) to local criminal gangs. Gradually, the business grew - large arms flows were sent to major world hot spots. Yuri Orlov, relying on his younger brother Vitaly, is quickly gaining his place under the sun and hopes to soon become the same cool "seller of death" as his idol Simeon Weiss. Yuri had access to a military warehouse in Ukraine, where his relative was a general, from there he sold several thousand AKs, several Mi-24 helicopters and several hundred RPG-7s. But there is not so much good in the arms sales business as Yuri had assumed: Interpol agent Jack Valentine is gradually approaching him, his wife leaves him, and his brother Vitaly is killed while selling weapons to African thugs. When trying to transport Vitaly's body to the United States at New York Airport, Yuri is detained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. However, he is released due to his great connections with the US military. After being released, Yuri continues the business of the "Lord of War"

Weapons in the movie

Weapon

• Rifle M16A1
• Rifle M16A2
• Rifle AR-15
• M4 Carbine
• Glock
• S&W Model 686
• M60 (known to Andre Batisto Jr. as "Rambo Gun")
• Type 56
• Gold-plated AKS74U Yugoslavian production.
• RPG-7
• Beretta 92
• Type 67 gun
• Steyr AUG

Military equipment and transport

• Tank T-72
• BMP-1
• container ship Yuri Orlov
• Fast Attack Craft Interpol
• Helicopter Mi-24A
• Ural 4320
• An-12
• Aero L-39 training aircraft
• Yury's Limousine Cadillac Fleetwood
• Citroën DS André Batista Sr.
• 1964 Pontiac Bonneville Andre Batista Jr.
• Blackburn Buccaneer
• Hawker Hunter Fighter

Cast

• The film crew purchased 3,000 real Czech CZ SA Vz.58 assault rifles instead of AK-47s, because real weapons turned out to be cheaper than dummies.
• Filming took place in South Africa, the Czech Republic and New York.
• No American company wanted to finance the project, so the film was financed and produced by European companies.
• The tanks in the picture are real. Once they belonged to the Czech army, and now they were intended for sale to Libya. History Television, series Fact and Film, episode «Lord of War» The filmmakers had to warn NATO just in case, so that, having fixed a large accumulation of equipment from satellites, they would not decide that a war had begun.
• Andrew Niccol assured that real arms dealers acted as consultants in the film.
• In the middle of the film, you can hear 3 obscene expressions in Russian. In the dub, they were all changed to more "soft" swear words.
• A soldier who was filming NAR blocks from a Mi-24 helicopter when Interpol officers arrived at the port of Odessa can see the buttonholes of tank troops.
• The 22nd president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, served as the prototype for Andre Batista, the president of Liberia, depicted in the film.

Viktor Anatolievich But(born January 13, 1967, Dushanbe, Tajik SSR) is an entrepreneur, has Russian citizenship. Found guilty by a jury in New York of illegal arms trafficking, conspiracy to kill American citizens, attempted sale of missiles and support of terrorism through cooperation with the FARC group. Among the media, his nicknames "Lord of War" and "dealer of death" are common. On April 5, 2012, a federal court in New York City sentenced Booth to 25 years in prison.

Biography of Viktor Bout

early years

In high school he studied German and Esperanto. He studied at the Kazan Suvorov Military School. In 1985, after an unsuccessful attempt to enter MGIMO, he was drafted into the army, he served in Transcarpathia, after demobilization in 1987 he entered the Military Red Banner Institute of the USSR Ministry of Defense in Moscow, after which he served as a military translator from 1989 to 1991 - radio operator in the Vitebsk regiment of military transport aviation, repeatedly performing flight missions in Angola and other African countries. In 1989-1990 he was an interpreter for the Soviet military mission in Mozambique, where he met his future wife, Alla, at a party and Komsomol meeting.

Business

In 1991, he opened his first firm and became an aviation broker. In 1992, he left for South Africa, where he took up the organization of air transportation. In a newspaper interview, he claimed that he had lived in the United Arab Emirates since 1993, but "never attempted to emigrate from Russia or change citizenship." His airline at Sharjah Airport transported flowers, household goods and legal military supplies, as well as transporting French and Belgian military peacekeepers. In 1996, she delivered Russian fighter jets to Malaysia.

By the mid-1990s, the first media allegations that Bout's business included illegal arms trade in countries subject to international embargoes date back to the mid-1990s. Among the buyers pointed to the governments and guerrilla formations of countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Togo, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The reason for such assumptions was the testimonies of the pilots that the cargo was always in boarded up boxes. The Russian press suggested that Bout could be an unspoken dealer of Rosvooruzhenie and one of the important secret bearers of the Russian Federation.

In 1995, he participated in negotiations on the release of the Russian crew of the Il-76 aircraft captured in Afghanistan.

In 1995-1998, he carried out his business from Belgium, but in connection with the investigation of his activities by law enforcement agencies, he moved to the United Arab Emirates, where the office of his airline Air Cess Liberia, which owns more than 50 aircraft in different countries of the world, is located.

Mentioned in connection with the illegal supply of weapons and ammunition in circumvention of UN sanctions in the reports of the UN Security Council (2000), Amnesty International (2005 and 2006), the US State Department.

However, since 2003, companies owned or controlled by Bout have supplied material support to the US military in Iraq.

In November 2011, during a search of the Libyan intelligence headquarters in Tripoli, documents were found indicating Bout's contacts with Libyan officials dating back to 2003.

Booth acknowledges its participation in the transportation of weapons to "hot spots", but denies trade, as such. He declared:

I airlifted weapons to the governments of Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, and Rwanda, as well as the Rabbani government in Afghanistan, during the war with the Taliban. But I didn't buy or sell weapons.

Charges and arrest

In 2001, due to a growing wave of suspicion, Bout had to leave the UAE. In 2002, Belgium was the first Western country to accuse him of smuggling diamonds and laundering money in the amount of about $300 million over the previous seven years and put Bout on the international wanted list. Fearing arrest, Bout settled in Russia in 2002, trying not to travel abroad, not to draw attention to himself and, according to his wife, stopped doing the aviation business. However, based on the Belgian warrant, in 2002 the UN imposed a ban on Bout's movements, and in 2005, together with the United States, demanded that his accounts be frozen, as well as all companies and individuals associated with him. Booth claimed to have lost about $17 million as a result of UN sanctions.

In the late 1990s, the US government launched an investigation into Viktor Bout. In 2006, US President George W. Bush signed a decree freezing Bout's assets due to the fact that his activities threaten the implementation of US foreign policy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2008, agents of the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), under the guise of Colombian rebels, lured Bout to Bangkok, allegedly to conclude a deal for the supply of modern weapons, and made dictaphone recordings compromising Bout, which later became evidence in an American court. On March 6, 2008, at the Sofitel Silom Road Hotel, Bout was detained by the Thai police. The arrest warrant was issued by a Thai court on charges of aiding Colombian terrorists posing as American agents.

Together with Viktor Bout, Andrei (Andrew) Smulyan, a British citizen and his possible accomplice, was detained in Thailand, but then released. It is assumed that Smulyan at that time collaborated with the American intelligence services, acting as an intermediary in negotiations between them and Bout.

Extradition

On August 11, 2009, a Thai court refused to extradite the United States, citing the lack of evidence of guilt presented to the court, as well as the fact that the Colombian radical organization FARC, to which, according to the prosecution, Bout sold weapons, is political, and not terrorist, as the United States claimed. , relying on a decision in 2001 by the US State Department and later by the European Union to designate it as a terrorist organization. However, on September 2 of the same year, the Bangkok Criminal Court refused to release him on bail.

On February 17, 2010, the New York prosecutor's office filed new charges regarding two aircraft located in the United States, which Bout wanted to buy with his American colleague Richard Chichakli.

On August 20, 2010, the Court of Appeal of Thailand, in response to a request from the Prosecutor's Office of Thailand, ordered that the request of the US authorities for extradition be granted. Victor Bout . The court's decision was challenged by Bout's lawyer, after which other court procedures took some time. However, by mid-November, the Thai authorities made the final decision to extradite Viktor Bout to the United States.

November 16, 2010 at 13.30 local time (9:30 Moscow time) a small business jet "Gulfstream" with Viktor Bout left Thailand on a charter flight. On the flight, Bout was accompanied by six employees of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. The flight from Bangkok to New York took over 20 hours.

On the morning of November 17, 2010, the plane with Booth landed at the US National Guard's Stewart Air Force Base near the city of Newburgh (New York), 60 km north of New York. He was brought to court in Manhattan in an armored car in a convoy of five escort jeeps. He did not admit his guilt. A judge for the Southern District of New York ordered him to be held in custody at the Park Row Detention Center. This isolation ward, connected to the court by an underpass, is called the VIP prison. Here sat Bernard Madoff, who stole billions of dollars, in 2010 the defendants in the “spy” scandal between Russia and America, including Anna Chapman, Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted in 2011 for drug trafficking.

Litigation in the USA

On October 11, 2011, US v. Booth was launched. The case was heard by the Southern District Court of the State of New York (ukr.), located in Manhattan in New York City. The trial was presided over by District Judge Shira A. Shendlin ( English: Shira A. Scheindlin).

Seven witnesses for the prosecution testified during the hearings. The defense did not provide their witnesses, and Bout refused to participate in the testimony.

Booth was charged with four counts: conspiracy to kill US citizens; criminal conspiracy to kill persons in the civil service; criminal conspiracy to acquire and sell man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS); criminal conspiracy to supply weapons to terrorist groups.

The defendant pleaded not guilty on any of the counts. Since Bout also did not make a deal with justice, then - if the jury finds him guilty - the Russian citizen faces at least 25 years in prison on each count.

In October, during the trial, a group of deputies of the Russian parliament sent a letter addressed to Judge Shira Shendlin, which states that “in business circles, among colleagues, friends and relatives of Viktor Bout, there has long been an opinion about him as an honest, respectable, a highly moral and sympathetic person and a law-abiding, responsible, reliable entrepreneur.”

On November 2, 2011, the jury unanimously returned a guilty verdict to Bout. V. Bout was found guilty by the jury of conspiracy to kill American citizens, conspiracy to kill American officials, conspiracy to sell missiles and conspiracy to support terrorism through cooperation with the Colombian group FARC. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, after the verdict was passed, the conditions of Bout's detention in prison, already too harsh, became even tougher.

The verdict is expected on April 5, 2012. The prosecutor's office demands to sentence Bout to life imprisonment. Myself Booth is also awaiting a life sentence.

Earlier, before the start of the trial, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russian authorities would continue to support Viktor Bout. After the announcement of the verdict, on November 3, 2011, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Moscow would seek the return of Bout to Russia. In the opinion of Bout himself (February 2012), "the position of the Foreign Ministry confirms that Russia has figured everything out and requires the application of international law, and not replacing it with the law of the strong."

Meanwhile, in Russia, Bout has never been in the field of view of law enforcement agencies, his activities have never been the subject of investigations. This is probably due to the fact that Bout was not seen in anything criminal on the territory of the Russian Federation.

On April 5, 2012, a federal court in New York City sentenced Booth to 25 years in prison. After sentencing, he was transferred to the Brooklyn General Security Prison.

The Russian Foreign Ministry sharply criticized the verdict, calling the case against Bout unfounded, biased and politically contracted, and promised to take all measures to return Bout to Russia. The topic of Bout will become one of the priorities in the Russian-American negotiation process.

On April 11, 2012, Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov said in Washington that Russia would seek the return to their homeland of V. Bout and K. Yaroshenko, convicted in the United States.

In May 2012, the US Federal Bureau of Prisons decided to send Bout to serve his sentence in a maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.

Promotions to support

On October 11, 2011, the public organization "Trade Union of Citizens of Russia" organized a picket at the US Consulate in St. Petersburg with the slogans "Return Viktor Bout" and "We demand a fair trial of Viktor Bout." Similar actions were also held in Moscow, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg.

On December 27, 2011, the public organization "Trade Union of Citizens of Russia" held a mass picket at the US Consulate in St. Petersburg demanding that Bout be returned to his homeland. This time, Alla But joined the activists of the "Trade Union of Citizens of Russia". The indefinite picketing, according to the organizers, will continue until Bout returns to Russia.

On March 27, 2012, another mass picket was held at the US Consulate in St. Petersburg in support of Viktor Bout, 30 activists of the public organization "Trade Union of Citizens of Russia" with flags and posters came to Furshtatskaya Street and waited for a meeting with the consul. Their main question was: why is the Russian Bout still being held on US soil? A little earlier on March 22, the delegations of the organization in Moscow and St. Petersburg handed over letters to US Ambassador Michael McFaul and US Consul General Bruce Turner, in which they insist on a personal meeting to discuss the issue of Bout's release. In Moscow, a picket with similar demands was also held near the US Embassy.

On April 24, 2012, Trade Union members again unfurled flags and banners demanding the return of a Russian citizen to their homeland at the US Consulate in St. Petersburg. “Shame on the kidnappers!”, “Freedom to the citizen of Russia!”, “Obama, return the Nobel Peace Prize!” the posters read. For an hour, picketers handed out leaflets to passers-by, which say that members of the Trade Union consider the Bout case to be a political order.

Family

Wife since 1992 - Alla Vladimirovna But (b.1970, Leningrad), artist, designer, fashion designer, hereditary Petersburger. Graduate of the Higher Art and Industrial School. Mukhina, worked at the Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics. Victor Bout met his future wife at the end of the 1980s in Mozambique, where he worked as an interpreter from Portuguese in the Soviet military mission. For Alla, this was the second marriage.

Daughter - Elizabeth (b.1994, United Arab Emirates).

The elder brother and former partner - Sergey Anatolyevich Bout continues to run a legal aviation business in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates and Bulgaria.

Image in culture

In 2005, Booth became the prototype of the protagonist of the film "Lord of War" (USA). His role was played by Nicolas Cage. According to Dmitry Khalezov, this film has nothing to do with Bout's activities and is an integral part of his discrediting by US intelligence agencies.

He was the prototype of the coordinator and sponsor of the escape of Russian pilots from the captivity of the Taliban militants in the film "Kandahar".

He became the prototype for Andrey Shut, a trader and arms supplier, in Andrey Tsaplienko's novel Equator.

In 2010, the French writer Gerard de Villiers wrote the novel Bangkok Trap, in which Victor Bout served as the prototype for the protagonist.

Yunna Moritz published poems about But in 2010.

• Booth speaks many languages, including English, French, Portuguese, Farsi, Zulu, Xhosa.
• Included in the "black list" compiled by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury. Bank accounts of individuals on this list are blocked, and Americans are prohibited from doing business with them.

From August 18 in the Russian box office, the tragicomedy "Guys with Guns" with Jonah Hill and Miles Teller in the lead roles. The film tells the true story of two sassy students of the Volryd synagogue who invaded the world of the arms trade and rode their charisma, confidence and dumping until the intelligence agencies caught them cheating. Disgusting men tell how it all really happened, and why starting a business in half with a close friend is not a good idea, no matter what you do.

“Actually, I didn’t plan on becoming an arms dealer. I was going to make some quick cash and finally start my music career. I never had my own trunk either. But then I realized that this is a very exciting feeling - to steer a business that literally decides the fate of entire nations "

David Packose, international arms dealer

By 2007, the United States was firmly stuck in two military conflicts at once. The Americans fought the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, sought out weapons of mass destruction, and hunted down supporters of the recently executed Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

The Taliban and al-Qaeda, seemingly safely and cleanly defeated back in 2001, began to raise their heads again. In Iraq, Islamists of all stripes and supporters of the ousted Hussein launched a full-scale terror against civilians and American military personnel. Every day, improvised roadside bombs exploded here and there, suicide bombers loaded with high-quality plastic explosives entered secure sites with little difficulty, the number of young American citizens killed increased, and so did the costs of the war overseas; the dissatisfaction of ordinary Americans with the ineffective actions of George W. Bush and the Republican Party also grew. All this happened against the backdrop of the stress of the upcoming presidential elections (although Bush could no longer participate in them).

After George W. Bush took office in 2001, the approach to war in the Middle East changed dramatically. Every year the role of the US Armed Forces was reduced, and their work was taken over by local allies and private military companies. Funds for paying for the services of PMCs increased by 2.5 times in just 7 years: 145 billion dollars in 2001 to 390 billion in 2008. The US government hoped in the near future to transfer the responsibility for building a peaceful life and fighting terrorism to the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq. The construction of national armed forces, both in Afghanistan and in Iraq, was costly - thousands of instructors were engaged in their education and training, it was necessary to provide them with everything they needed - from machine guns and cartridges to tanks and helicopters. In addition, the United States also armed all sorts of non-state formations - detachments of friendly field commanders, local self-defense forces and other "correct" Mujahideen.

Costs were rising, and the Pentagon wanted to save

The cheapest weapons could be found in the former Warsaw Pact countries, where they were stockpiled in unthinkable quantities in case of an imminent war with NATO, and now they simply rusted in warehouses idle. But for many reasons, the Ministry of Defense could not work directly with many countries and suppliers: embargoes, sanctions, the dubious past of counterparties. To purchase such weapons, intermediaries were required, people who organized the supply of the right things in the right quantity, so much so that these things became whiter than snow in legal terms just in time for the moment when they fall into the hands of the customer. According to the logic of greater openness and competitiveness of business, which George W. Bush advocated so much, everyone was allowed to participate in securing contracts for the supply of arms and ammunition. This gave small companies a chance to squeeze into a huge arms market, long divided among themselves by such giants as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and others.

Guys with no guns

David Pacous (left) and Ephraim Diveroli.

The history of the big business of little boys begins in the resort town of Miami Beach in sunny Florida. In one of the city's orthodox synagogues, David Pacous and Ephraim Diveroli met. Pacous was a tall, thin guy who wore a kippah and traditional Jewish clothes in the synagogue and was four years older than Diveroli. Ephraim with curly hair and weight problems at that time was known as a real class clown, he had a huge, always laughing mouth and kind eyes. But a very solid core was hidden inside - this guy did not feel fear at all and always moved towards his goal in the most direct way.

Pacous had a clear problem with excessive use of marijuana - at least his parents thought so. As soon as he graduated from high school in the US, they sent him to a specialized school in Israel for "addicted" teenagers. He wrote from there to his friend: “Dude, I threw acid on the shore Dead Sea. It's transcendent!"

Upon returning home, Pacous somehow studied for two semesters at a Florida college, but soon realized that studying was not his way. To earn money for weed and entertainment, he got a massage course and began to earn money, kneading the stout bodies of tourists on the coast - it turned out to be much more profitable than working in some fast food. In the evenings, together with friends, he sat on the ocean beach and dreamed of becoming a real pop star. He composed heartfelt ballads with naive lyrics, and the rest of the time he had no idea what to do with his life.

Ephraim Diveroli was very different.
He knew exactly what he wanted to be.
An arms salesman - like his grandfather, father and uncle.

And to become not just one of the dynasty, but to grow to a much larger scale - to become the new Viktor Bout, a real arms baron. Rich, dangerous and mysterious.

After 9th grade, Diveroli was kicked out of school, and he went to Los Angeles to help his uncle, who was supplying Glocks, Colts and Zig Sauers to the police and American intelligence agencies. The boy quickly got used to the family business and understood how everything works here. He adored weapons - loved to talk about them, shoot them and, of course, sell them. Ephraim was barely 16, and he was already traveling all over the country and making contracts for his uncle here and there. But by the age of 18, he was tired of being a traveling salesman, he quarreled with his uncle about money and decided that it was time to open his own business. What he would do - did not cause questions, he already had his own plan. As elegant as it is simple.

Ephraim Diveroli.

Most sellers gradually grow their business, attracting more and more buyers: advertising, personal charisma, high quality goods, a network of dealers, and so on. All this is nonsense - decided Ephraim. He only needs one buyer, but a very large one. The largest buyer of weapons in the country is the US Department of Defense. No one buys as many weapons as the army: they are like a kid in a toy store, ready to sweep everything from F-22 fighters, Abrams tanks and billion-dollar aircraft carriers, to dime cartridges, spare magazines and paper clips.

Under federal law, the Department must make public all of its purchases (unless they are classified). For the next few months, all porn sites disappeared from Diveroli's browser history, and only one Internet address settled in it: fbo.gov, which hosts public information about purchases.

Week after week, he reviewed all the contracts offered by the government. And when I thoroughly understood how this system works, I began to take on small deliveries that I could provide on my own. It worked simply: you had to find a small contract, then find a supplier, negotiate everything with him and, having appeased your greed, offer a not very high price at the competition. Voila! Diveroli undertook to supply machine guns for the Colombian army, helmets for the Iraqis and other trifles in small volumes. A hundred machine guns there, a thousand helmets here - the margin is quite small. But, firstly, these successful transactions fit into the history of his office and made it more experienced and more reliable in the eyes of the government. And, secondly, Diveroli made up for lost profits after the bidding at the auction. This guy certainly knew how to trade weapons.

He knew how to be on a short footing with anyone,
he found his own approach to everyone: to the bigwigs from the Pentagon, big businessmen, diplomats and government officials.

He met with high officials at the Pentagon and began his presentation: “Why don’t you get these beautiful Korean licensed copies instead of expensive Belgian machine guns for Colombians?” or “These Chinese Kevlar helmets are no worse than domestic designs, what, sir, does it matter to you what kind of helmet these damn Iraqi cowards will run from the battlefield?”. Diveroli perfectly mastered the art of charming the military, all these “yes, sir”, “no, sir”, “I obey, it will be done” - acted on the generals without fail, and he always managed to get his way. Where the contract included a profit of 3%, he eventually received 33% - things went uphill. In the end, the time came when Diveroli could no longer cope with everything alone. It was then that he remembered his old friend Packowse.

AEY conquers the world

In November 2005, Pacous became a partner in Diveroli's AEY. The former masseur very quickly got into the essence of the work and soon could just as well understand all the intricacies and subtle legal nuances of working with the government. The guys were on their phones 24/7, sending hundreds of e-mails all over the world, and after successful deals, hung out in local karaoke bars, drinking alcohol and sniffing cocaine from a container in the form of a plastic bullet that Diveroli always carried with him. Contract after contract, somewhere more successful, somewhere not quite, some not at all (the guys failed to supply tens of thousands of pistols for the Iraqis, but this did not spoil their "credit history") - Ephraim and David felt something big was approaching.

In June 2006, they flew to Paris for a major arms exhibition Eurosatory and made acquaintance with the cunning Swiss Heinrich Thomet there. This guy had connections everywhere: he worked with Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania and all those who have long been blacklisted in the United States. Tomet was just the kind of "shadow" supplier that the two from Miami Beach needed so badly. In turn, Tomet had big plans for the guys - he was under surveillance on suspicion of selling Serbian weapons to Iraq, and two Americans with a legal office could help him bypass any restrictions and enter into legal relations with the US Government.

big jackpot

On July 28, 2006, a huge contract for almost $300 million was posted on fbo.gov: ammunition for Kalashnikov assault rifles, a Dragunov sniper rifle, 30-mm grenades for underbarrel grenade launchers, mortar shells of all calibers, rockets for man-portable air defense systems and a bunch of Soviet junk. Huge numbers in the "quantity" column, a real arsenal for the Afghan army. And this is a contract for one supplier! All or nothing, Diveroli decided and called Pacous immediately.

AEY was located in a small rented apartment, and all the equipment consisted of two laptops and a couple of mobile phones. Everything was littered with pizza boxes, cans of soda and beer, and the smell of marijuana that never faded in the air. Their plan rested on three advantages. Firstly, they are exactly the same small business that the president talks about supporting so much, obliging government agencies to work with small companies. Secondly, they had experience working on contracts for the supply of weapons to the government - all small transactions have developed into a good portfolio. And thirdly, they already had a supplier - the same Swiss Tomet, who specialized in gray markets, where all the ammunition needed under this contract was sold. It was worth the risk.

Day and night, young arms dealers were on the phone, negotiating with suppliers in Eastern Europe - Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine.

English! English! English!” Packows yelled frantically into the phone, trying to call at least someone with knowledge of English in this damn collapsed socialist camp.

"Your buy, we sell whatever you want!". The contract did not specify the allowable terms for the manufacture of ammunition, so they were ready to buy everything - old, rusty, dilapidated, as long as it could explode and shoot. Tomet lived up to expectations and found reliable suppliers in Albania who could provide the necessary amount of ammunition for the first delivery.

All the work took place in this modest building in Miami Beach. Photo by The NYT.

It's time to apply. A heated argument flared up around the margin, which should have been added to the contract amount. All big companies will probably add the standard 10%, and AEY could dump and ask for only 9%, which will increase the chances of winning. But hell, 1% on a deal like this is $3 million, a huge amount. But what if competitors are not greedy and also ask for 9%? It's better to play it safe and add only 8% - and that's another minus three million: a chic new Audi, model girls by the pool, after all, a whole mountain of cocaine to fill up a plastic bullet! Ten minutes before the deadline for submission of documents, they submitted their application. In the column, the amount of the contract was 298,000,000 US dollars.

The War Department is a clumsy machine, and it took a long time before the guys knew the result of the competition. On the afternoon of January 26, 2007, Pacous was parking his old Mazda near his house when the call came from Diveroli: the first delivery would be only $600,000, but they had won the contract.

“Those old fat cats who now run the arms business and count the slightest fluctuations in their stocks on the stock exchange have no idea that we are going to give them a good kick in the ass. In a couple of years, AEY will be worth $10 billion and they'll just be in the ass!"

But between today and $10 billion in the future, there was still a lot of work to be done. It was necessary to agree with all suppliers and organize all the logistics of goods between Albania and Afghanistan. The duo hired a good accountant who put all the papers in order. The Pentagon still had a lot of issues with AEY, including their failed early contracts, but they were resolved extremely quickly and always in favor of AEY. It's hard to say why, but most likely because AEY's bid was $50 million lower than their closest competitors. The Pentagon simply couldn't pass up this opportunity to save taxpayers money.

Pacous (left) and Diveroli in Gun Boys.

Diveroli once again applied his charm, and in the spacious generals' offices of the Pentagon, they found no reason to distrust two promising young businessmen who love America so much and want to help their country in the fight against terrorism. Finally, the first contract for the supply of AK-47 ammunition and grenades to the Afghans for US$600,000 was signed.

Diveroli flew to Ukraine to negotiate the supply of ammunition, and Pacous flew to Abu Dhabi for one of the largest international arms exhibitions to find new suppliers who would help close the contract in its entirety.

“I felt like the hero of some stupid movie that Diveroli forced me to do. A 20-year-old boy among Russian generals in full uniform, Arab sheikhs and serious businessmen who have entire corporations behind their backs.

Packose had only a small aluminum case and freshly printed business cards with the proud title of "VP of AEY", and he also had a goal - to get in touch with Rosoboronexport. They could solve all the problems at once and supply all the necessary ammunition from their bottomless warehouses deep in Russia. True, there was one small problem - the US State Department blacklisted Rosoboronexport for selling some unpleasant things to Iran. On the last day of the exhibition, Packows managed to meet with the Deputy Director of Rosoboronexport. He looked like a former KGB officer, constantly looking around and speaking with a subtle but colorful Russian accent. When Packows showed him the wish list, the Russian's eyebrows slowly went up.

This was the last conversation with the Russians, and there was no answer.

Russian games

Heinrich Thomet.

Well, if the Russians don't want to, there are plenty of other options! Here and there they nevertheless agreed on the supply of everything necessary; the lion's share of everything requested was found in Albania with the help of the Swiss Tomet.

A few weeks later, when Diveroli had already fully developed the delivery route to Afghanistan and managed to conclude agreements with all the countries through which the transport workers were supposed to fly, it suddenly became known that Turkmenistan had refused to provide them with its airspace. It was the shortest route to Afghanistan from Europe, and the whole scheme went to hell.

We had to look for other routes. But as soon as the talk turned to Iraq and Afghanistan, somewhere at the top something clicked, and the negotiations stalled. There was big politics involved here, and even two smart young Jews like Pacous and Diveroli couldn't figure it out. Diveroli called the embassies of the necessary countries, made his voice low and menacing, like a real warrior, and began to broadcast: “The supply of these ammunition is the most important thing for international wrestling with terrorism, we are helping the Afghans build their nation state and defeat the enemies of all mankind, sign the necessary papers and you will become part of history! The Pentagon and the entire diplomatic machine of the United States joined in resolving the issue - the necessary permits were obtained.

“We do not demand age restrictions on ammunition! We accept ammunition of all years of manufacture! - they wrote in letters to suppliers. The Pentagon did not care about the quality of the products supplied. It was supposed to be used by the local Afghan police and the Afghan national army, which they have tried unsuccessfully to make effective over the past 6 years. Who cares if a cartridge explodes in the barrel of a couple of Afghans and injures them in the face, or a grenade flies not into the Taliban trench, but under the shooter's feet?

New problems in Albania

Business moved forward and up. Pacous and Diveroli bought themselves new cars to match their status as major arms dealers and moved into neighboring apartments in a luxury building overlooking the ocean. In the evenings, the newly-minted armory barons went down to the pool in the courtyard of their house and tried to relax a little. There were always a lot of people here - lawyers, successful clerks, start-ups and young brokers from the stock exchange littered with money, girls sunbathed topless, expensive champagne flowed like water.

And, of course, drugs, just mountains of drugs.
At that time, it seemed to them that they could work without doping
in this mode is simply impossible.

Through incredible efforts, AEY was able to launch the entire scheme for the supply of weapons and ammunition to Afghanistan from Albania. The whole scheme was clean: Tomet registered an offshore company in Cyprus that bought ammunition from the Albanian government and then sold it to AEY, who, in turn, put it at the disposal of the US government. Not a very long multi-move, but it worked - formally, all the ammunition became clean, and the deal ceased to be subject to any restrictions. The US government was not involved in dealing with corrupt and semi-mafia Albania; all the dirty work was done by intermediaries.

In Albania, there was an AEY representative named Alex Podrizki, another old acquaintance of the guys from the synagogue in Miami Beach. His task was to resolve all issues on the spot, and soon one of these issues required immediate intervention. In his preliminary calculations for the deal, Pacous did not take into account the ever-increasing price of aviation fuel, and, as you understand, aircraft loaded with ammunition to the eyeballs require a hell of a lot of this fuel. Then they decided to repack the cartridges from wooden and metal boxes into cardboard boxes. Permission from the Pentagon to change the packaging was obtained, and Alex Podrizki began to look for a local cardboard magnate who could repack millions of cartridges in a short time. His name was Kosta Trebicka - he owned a small cardboard factory and undertook to organize the work of repacking ammunition.

On March 27, 2008, a fresh issue of The New York Times was released - with photographs of cartridges that AEY imported to Afghanistan.

When Podriski came to inspect the work, he discovered another unpleasant detail: all the cartridges were Chinese, marked with characters. Packowse almost had a stroke. Close ties between the countries of the socialist bloc in the distant 1970s, when they dumped all sorts of military stuff on the cheap to each other, have now played a bad joke on AEY. Of course, these cartridges were no worse than the Soviet ones, they shot in the same way and could kill people, but in the contract with the government it was written in black and white: "No Chinese ammunition." It was a purely political decision, the US does not buy weapons from China, period. Pacous sent a formal request to the Pentagon to see if he could supply Chinese munitions that had entered Albania decades before the embargo. The answer was clear - only with the personal permission of the President of the United States. It was impossible to get it.

Finally, the first transporter with 5 million rounds of 7.62x39 caliber on board took off in the sky over Albania. For unknown reasons, halfway to Afghanistan, during one of the intermediate landings in Kyrgyzstan, the plane was delayed. Packows was on the phone again - the American embassy in Bishkek, the State Department in Washington, the Department of Defense. Endless calls and hot persuasion. Two weeks later, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates himself went to Kyrgyzstan for talks to resolve the issue of further deliveries of military equipment for warring Afghanistan. The issue was resolved positively, and the board with the cartridges again took to the air.

Transport planes took off from airfields all over Eastern Europe and, loaded to the brim with ammunition, lay down on a course for Kabul. The military in Kabul accepted the incoming cargo without question, everyone was happy: the cartridges were in good condition - it shoots, okay. The whole scheme was worked out and no longer gave serious failures. Millions of dollars were regularly flowing from the pockets of American taxpayers through the Pentagon directly into the account of AEY, and the entire large contract of 300 million was slowly fulfilled. Diveroli was rich, Pacous was about to be rich. They succeeded.

Friendship is friendship, and tobacco apart

Once the business got underway properly, Packows allowed himself to relax a bit. He no longer had to work hard for 18 hours a day and constantly hang on the phone, organizing interaction with dozens of different people. He started coming to the office late and leaving early. Ephraim, a workaholic, didn't like it very much, and when it came up again about the commissions owed to Packowes for a new deal, he told him: “I'm not going to give you all the money, you've been relaxing lately. It's time to revise our agreements." Although AEY already had millions of dollars in its accounts, Diveroli was not going to part with them so easily. Packowse was not in the best position for negotiations - all the conditions for the joint work of the two arms dealers were sealed only by a handshake, they did not officially conclude any contracts, and there were no arguments for a dispute with the actual and formal owner of the company.

But Packows honestly earned this money, and he decided to go for broke: he threatened his partner with tax harassment, and also reminded that so far only the two of them know that Chinese cartridges are flying to Kabul, which are prohibited for circulation by the US Government. Diveroli said that he would work out a mutually beneficial agreement, but further communication between the two partners was carried out only in the presence of lawyers.

Although he lost some money and some "friend", Packows also gained something more - he had an excellent experience of participating in Government competitions. Less than a month later, he opened his own office, Dynacore Industries, which loudly declared on its website that it had experience working with the State Department, the Pentagon, and the armies of Iraq and Afghanistan. Friends became rivals, and Pacous even bought himself a powerful .357 revolver, fearing that Diveroli would simply order it rather than pay him all the money owed.

Collapse of AEY

Lieutenant Colonel Amanuddin examines cartridges that are over forty years old. Photo by The NYT.

The sudden rise of two Miami Beach suckers upset the serious people in the industry and they decided to put them in their place. One of the major arms dealers (whose name was withheld in the interests of the investigation) told the Government that AEY was supplying the Iraqi army with Chinese AK-47s. These accusations had nothing to do with reality, but launched the millstones of the law enforcement machine to its fullest. They began to closely monitor the activities of the company and accumulate evidence of their illegal actions.

On August 23, 2007, the same day that Diveroli and Pacous signed the agreement, federal agents raided the AEY office. Everything happened in the Hollywood style that Diveroli liked so much: hefty men in masks ordered everyone not to move, pointed guns at them and began to seize computer hard drives and folders with documents.

The most damaging piece of evidence was apparently the emails that Diveroli and Pacous exchanged with their man in Albania about Chinese markings on ammunition. Without them, there would not have been any criminal case, it would have been possible to successfully deny all the accusations.

When, after some time, Packose was called in for questioning, the agents frankly laughed at his naivety.

“Man, you broke the law and knew about it, couldn’t you get yourself a new mailbox on Gmail?”

In an attempt to avoid full responsibility, Packose agreed to a deal with the investigation, just like Alex Podrizki did. Diveroli alone stood firm and refused to testify. In March 2008, a new issue of The New York Times came out with a high-profile cover story: “Arms suppliers to Afghanistan under scrutiny,” and it became clear that no one would get off lightly, everything would be serious; the case went public.

Soon Pakouzu, Diveroli and Podrizki filed charges based on irrefutable evidence - 71 counts of fraud. Pacous and Diveroli remained at large on large bail; their partner Ralph Merril was taken into custody, Heinrich Thomet, who was also charged, fled the investigation. He was last seen somewhere in Bosnia.

Diveroli less fortunate

After a thorough investigation, the court sentenced David Pakouz to seven months of house arrest (his active cooperation with the investigation affected), and Ephraim Diveroli was less fortunate. During the investigation, being under house arrest, he was subjected to a number of restrictions - in particular, he was forbidden to sell weapons and generally take them in hand. But Diveroli decided that it was impossible to leave the business. A large client appeared on the horizon, planning to buy a large batch of spare magazines for automatic rifles. Everything was legal from the point of view of the law, spare magazines are not weapons, and restrictions on bail conditions did not apply to them. The client persistently invited Diveroli to hunt alligators, but he just as persistently refused. In the end, at the next meeting, the future partner showed Diveroli his Glock, and Ephraim could not resist - he took it in his hands and skillfully inspected the condition of the barrel. This client turned out to be a fake agent provocateur ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives). The bail conditions were violated, Diveroli showed his contempt for the law, which means he should have received in full. The court sentenced him to 4 years in prison.

• Map of AEY activity and timeline from The New York Times.

Based on the results of the investigation into the activities of AEY, the government commission concluded that “when concluding a contract with AEY, the company’s qualifications were inadequately assessed, and proper control of the transaction and supervision over the fulfillment of the terms of the agreement were not carried out.” The lucrative and alluring world of the arms trade, opened up by the federal government to cheapen its costs of war in the Middle East, has been closed to small companies like AEY. They were all given a clear message that they couldn't compete with the corporations.

The young businessmen were punished according to their degree of guilt, but not a single representative of the Ministry of Defense suffered any punishment.

Neither those people who made a deal with the dubious AEY, nor those who accepted obviously illegal Chinese cartridges - nobody.

Despite such an inglorious end, gunsmiths managed to do good business. AEY provided 85 deliveries of ammunition and other ammunition to Afghanistan under contracts with the US Government in the amount of $66 million, and managed to receive orders for another $100 million. It was a very successful and profitable startup by two guys from Miami Beach.

Miami Beach, Florida, USA, 2005. David Packhouse, 22, dropped out of college, had a fight with his parents, changed six jobs, and is now busy giving massages to wealthy clients. The work is not prestigious and low-paid. The idea to sell high-end linens to nursing homes was not successful, although David invested all his savings in the purchase of a wholesale consignment of goods. Iz, David's wife, announces her pregnancy, her husband now needs to think about how he will support the family. Therefore, David accepts the offer of his school friend Ephraim Diveroli to become his assistant. Ephraim lived for some time in Los Angeles, where, together with his uncle, who has connections in government structures, he was engaged in the sale of weapons confiscated from criminals via the Internet. Diveroli claims that his uncle heated him for 70 thousand, so he decided to open his own company. Ephraim is well versed in weapons, he is sure that in a situation where the US is arming the Iraqi army, one can make great money in the war without leaving the office. The American government places requests for the supply of weapons on a special website, anyone can participate in the tender. Large contracts go to companies of the federal level, they are not exchanged for small orders. But even such crumbs of a huge pie can bring a decent profit. The main investor in the company AEY, which Diveroli registered, is the owner of dry cleaning, Ralph Slutsky. Ephraim convincingly plays a religious Jew in front of him, so Slutsky is more willing to cooperate.

Packhouse is afraid to admit to his wife that he agreed to sell weapons, Iz is a pacifist. David lies to her that he is going to supply bedding to the US Army. In fact, they found a fairly profitable order: they need to send a batch of Beretta pistols to Baghdad. Iz and all her friends unanimously tell David that he should be careful with Ephraim, the guy has a bad reputation. They say he stole 70 thousand from his uncle, after which all relatives stopped communicating with him. In high school, David was already in trouble because of Ephraim, friends were arrested because of drug problems. Young people still smoke weed. Ephraim convinces a school friend that he is the only one he trusts. David believes that working with Diveroli is much more promising than doing massage.

The Beretta deal is in jeopardy, Jordanian customs seized containers with cargo that, bypassing the embargo announced by Italy, were supposed to be transported to Iraq through a country that was not under sanctions. The representative of the US Army in Iraq, Captain Santos, intends to unilaterally cancel the deal, for AEY this means that the Pentagon will blacklist the firm, it will never receive another contract. Diveroli tries to pity the customer with fictitious stories about financial and family difficulties, cries into the phone, begs to wait with the refusal, but his tricks do not work on the harsh warrior. David and Ephraim are forced to fly to Jordan to save the situation. There is no legal way to solve the problem. The partners get involved in a dubious adventure: they intend to smuggle a truckload of weapons across the border with the help of a local smuggler nicknamed Marlboro. The chances of success are 50/50. At the risk of their lives, Ephraim and David have to drive through a war zone, smuggle cargo for the American army through the so-called triangle of death. In the desert, they stumble upon a group of militants who fire on their truck, chasing it all the way to the border. Fortunately, everything ends happily. Captain Santos is impressed, the guys did a great job. He pays his suppliers in cash, the partners receive a fabulous amount of about $ 3 million.

After that, orders fell on AEY from all sides. David and Ephraim buy themselves the same Porsche, acquire luxurious apartments in the same building. Business is booming, Ralph Slutsky is increasing his investment in the firm, Diveroli decides to expand the company, hires new employees who should focus on finding lucrative contracts. David and Iz have a daughter, the family lives in abundance. Packhouse discovers a chic tender on the Pentagon website: the deal could bring hundreds of millions of dollars, it seems that the US government intends to provide weapons to the Afghan army for 30 years ahead. This order is worth fighting for. Packhouse and Diveroli travel to Las Vegas for the annual gun show to make some useful contacts. However, the partners come to the conclusion that the Afghan deal is too tough for them, it is a real logistical nightmare for a company of such a small scale. AEY is unable to coordinate the work of dozens transport companies, mess with bureaucratic red tape to get hundreds of permits. They are ready to give up this idea, but at the gaming table in the casino, David unexpectedly meets Henri Gerard, a true legend of the illegal arms market. Gerard claims that he can get an unlimited amount of ammunition in Albania literally for pennies. He himself is blacklisted as terrorists, so he cannot directly cooperate with the US government, but he is ready to mediate in this deal. This arrangement radically changes the situation, AEY will have only one supplier, the issue of transport is also actually resolved. Diveroli and Peckhouse agree to work with Henri Gerard, you just need to visit Albania and make sure that the goods are in stock.

David flies to Albania, where he learns to his amazement that the country is literally stuffed with weapons that have remained here since the existence of the socialist bloc in Eastern Europe. Only one of the 700 warehouses of the Albanian army stores tens of thousands of boxes of cartridges for Kalashnikov assault rifles. These stocks are 30-40 years old, but there was not a word in the contract about the age and expiration date of weapons. Albanian partners offer David to open one of the boxes and make sure that the cartridges are in working order. Packhouse returns to Miami, he and Diveroli manage to apply on the site at the very last moment. We have to wait 5 months for the results, after which it becomes known: AEY won the tender. To get the approval of the State Department, they need to pass numerous audits and interviews with representatives of the Pentagon. Until now, novice arms dealers have managed without any accounting at all, but now they are forced to invent and falsify the company's financial statements, and draw up the relevant documents. Before an official meeting with the military, the guys are so nervous that they stone themselves in the trash right in the parking lot in front of the office. However, the interview goes well, AEY's offer was too attractive, they set a price of $ 298 million, which is $ 53 million less than their competitors asked. Diveroli and Peckhouse are shocked.

David informs his wife that he is going to Albania again. From it became known that the husband is engaged in the arms trade. She accuses him of lying to her for a long time, takes her daughter and leaves David, because she can no longer trust him with anything. Before leaving, Peckhouse invites Diveroli to sign a formal partnership agreement, he fulfills the request of his deputy, as a reward, he is entitled to 30% of the profit from each transaction. In Albania, David has a serious problem, he finds out that the cartridges are Chinese, as evidenced by the hieroglyphs on the markings of the boxes. China has once again been blacklisted by the State Department, one of the conditions of the Afghan contract is a ban on Chinese weapons. Henri Gerard believes that these are not his problems, he fulfilled his obligations: he provided the goods. Packhouse is trying to find new suppliers, but it is almost impossible to do so. Diveroli comes up with a brilliant idea: to repack the cartridges. The owner of a small manufacturing enterprise agrees, for a modest fee, to open 68,528 cases of cartridges, pour them from metal containers into plastic bags and pack them in corrugated cardboard boxes. This procedure will reduce the total weight of the cargo by 180 tons, and by saving on transportation costs, AEY's profits could increase by $3 million. The first batch has already shipped to Afghanistan when Diveroli informs Peckhouse by phone: Henri Gerard has a 400% margin on this deal. He pays the Albanians a much smaller amount than he announced to his partners from AEY. Diveroli proposes to exclude Gerard from the chain of intermediaries and work directly with the Albanians. Peckhouse does not agree with him, bending Henri Gerard and sabotaging the deal is dangerous. Ephraim gets greedy, and David gets hit. On January 1, 2008, armed bandits burst into his room, beat the American, throw him into the trunk and take him to a wasteland, where Henri Gerard himself puts a pistol to his head. The seasoned arms dealer is not used to being brazenly thrown by some small fry, but for the first time he leaves Peckhouse alive. David intends to leave Albania immediately. Before leaving, he learns that the company that was engaged in packaging, Diveroli never transferred a cent, the owner has nothing to pay people for the work done. In addition, the driver, through whom AEY received information about the true terms of the deal between the Albanians and Gerard, disappeared without a trace.

Frightened, with a broken nose, David returns home. He swears to Iz that he will never lie to her again. He is done with the arms trade, ready to become a massage therapist again if she agrees to return to him. The wife forgives her husband, the spouses reconcile. The Packhouse informs Diveroli of his decision to go out of business. A conflict arises between the former partners, Ephraim refuses to pay remuneration for the unfinished Afghan deal, and he simply destroyed the partnership agreement. David breaks off relations with an insolent partner. Three months later, Ralph Slutsky persuades David to meet with Ephraim, who, according to him, is very worried and wants to discuss the amount of compensation for the moral and physical damage caused to David. However, when they meet, Diveroli offers to pay the Packhouse a ridiculous amount of 200,000 in comparison with the profit received over four years. David is furious, he threatens to make public all the information related to the illegal activities of AEY in front of a witness (Slutsky). To which Ephraim reasonably remarks that by doing this he will “bury” not only him, but both of them.

Soon, federal services begin an investigation into a scandalous case in which the Pentagon, the State Department and the US Congress are involved. At the highest level, for a long time, they turned a blind eye to the supply of counterfeit weapons for the American army by small businesses. What provoked the checks was an offended Albanian partner of AEY, who called the Pentagon and complained that he had not been paid for his work. The secret services reached out to Ralph Slutsky, persuaded him to cooperate, the recording of the conversation between Diveroli and Packhouse indicates that they committed fraud on an especially large scale. The trial of them becomes indicative, and government officials again manage to avoid responsibility. Diveroli is sentenced to 6 years in prison, Packhouse's sentence is much milder: 7 months of house arrest.

After some time, David continues to work as a massage therapist. One day, his client turns out to be none other than Henri Gerard. Biggest player in the gun market, he apologizes to David for the incident in Albania. He is grateful to Packhouse for not mentioning his name in court. David has a lot of questions in it. Was it a coincidence that they met in Vegas? What happened to the missing driver? However, Gerard advises the guy to stop asking questions and just pick up the case with the money - this is his share in the Albanian deal.