Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has a $50 million personal fortune. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Viktor Bout is accused of using his multiple air transport businesses to move weapons worth potentially billions of dollars from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Africa.
Early Life
He was detained in Thailand in 2008 on terrorism-related accusations, and he was found guilty of conspiring to assassinate US government employees and civilians in the US in 2011. Bout was subsequently given a 25-year prison term. Nicolas Cage played Viktor in the 2005 movie “Lord of War.”
On January 13, 1967, Viktor Bout was born in Dushanbe, in the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR. Other information regarding his background or childhood is scant, and even his exact birthdate is not known with certainty.
Bout served in the Soviet Armed Forces after earning his degree from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. He acquired fluency in Portuguese, Persian, Arabic, English, and French in addition to Russian during his training. Due to his multilingualism, Bout supposedly worked as a translator for the Soviet Army. Following the fall of the USSR in 1991, he is said to have let it out.
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Career
The Drug Enforcement Administration conducted a sting operation that had Bout as its target at the beginning of 2008. Later, he was detained in Bangkok, Thailand, as a result of a US-issued Interpol red alert. An extradition hearing was held in Bangkok later in the year. The US appealed the Bangkok Criminal Court’s ruling, which had been made in favor of Bout in August 2009, and it was overturned the following year. Bout was ultimately extradited to the US in the latter part of 2010.
The Russian government was outraged and asserted that the extradition was unlawful and driven by politics. In retaliation, the Russian government imposed sanctions on all those engaged in the extradition.
Bout was accused of fabricating documents in the Central African Republic in 2000 and was found guilty in his absence; the accusations were later dismissed. On suspicions of money laundering, Belgian authorities placed an Interpol red notice on Bout two years later. Due to Bout’s lack of a fixed address and the inability of the case to be prosecuted promptly, the prosecution was ultimately dismissed. An Executive Order caused Bout’s US assets to be blocked in the summer of 2004.
Depending on the source, Bout held a variety of posts after leaving the service. He started an Angolan-based air freight company called Air Cess, according to his personal website. The company offered services to the US, France, and the UN. The bout delivered shipments to Afghanistan’s pre-Taliban administration in 1994. Other reports claim that Bout also served as a GRU major, KGB agent, or officer in the Soviet Air Forces.
The Biden administration reportedly promised Bout to Russia in 2022 in exchange for the freedom of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was detained on drug possession-related charges.
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Prosecution
The US Department of Justice accused Bout of conspiring to kill US citizens and government officials, providing resources to a foreign terrorist organization, and delivering anti-aircraft missiles after his detention in Bangkok. He was hit with more allegations at the beginning of 2010. In November 2011, a federal court in Manhattan ultimately found Bout guilty. He received a 25-year prison term in April of the next year.