What is Victor Bout’s net worth?
Victor Bout is an arms dealer from Russia who has a net worth of $50 million. It is alleged that Victor Bout used several air carriers to smuggle weapons potentially worth billions of dollars from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Africa in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. In 2008, he was arrested in Thailand on terrorism charges, and in 2011 he was convicted in the United States of conspiring to kill American officials and citizens. Bout was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison. Nicolas Cage portrayed Victor in the 2005 movie “Lord of War”.
previous life
Victor Bout was born on January 13, 1967 in Dushanbe in what was then the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR. Not many other details are known about his origins or upbringing, and even his date of birth is not entirely certain.
Military service
Bout graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages and served in the Soviet Armed Forces. Through his training, he became fluent in Portuguese, Persian, Arabic, English and French in addition to Russian. Bout reportedly worked as a translator for the Soviet Army due to his multilingual status. He was allegedly demobilized in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
career beginnings
According to the source, Butt had different positions after being discharged from the army. According to his personal website, he has launched an air cargo company called Air Cess that operates out of Angola. The company has provided services to the United States, France and the United Nations. In 1994, Bout sent shipments to the former Taliban government of Afghanistan. According to other sources, Bout also spent time as a major in the GRU, a KGB agent or an officer in the Soviet Air Force.
arms trafficking
Between 1996 and 1998, Bout is reported to have smuggled various types of weapons from Bulgaria to Africa, possibly with the intent of their use by UNITA in the Angolan Civil War. Meanwhile, in Liberia he was accused of supplying warlord Charles Taylor with weapons for use in that country’s first civil war. Bout was also accused of arms smuggling during the Yugoslav wars.
In 2004, Butt and his partner Richard Chichakli established an airline in Tajikistan to conduct money laundering activities. During this time, he allegedly supplied arms to a number of groups in Africa and allegedly sent surface-to-air missiles to Kenya for use in an attack on an Israeli aircraft. Among his other activities, Bout is reported to have a large commercial presence in Libya. However, since he was constantly on the move, operating several companies, and often re-registering his plane, the authorities were unable to bring a final case against him for arms smuggling in Africa.
Bout was accused in the Central African Republic in 2000 of forging documents, and was convicted in absentia. The charges were eventually dropped. Two years later, Belgian authorities issued an INTERPOL Red Notice for Bout for money laundering. However, the case was eventually dismissed due to Bout’s lack of a fixed place of residence and the fact that the case could not be prosecuted in time. In the summer of 2004, Bot’s assets in the United States were frozen by executive order.
In early 2008, Butt was targeted by a stinging operation organized by the Drug Enforcement Administration. He was later arrested in Bangkok, Thailand under an INTERPOL Red Notice issued by the United States. Later in the year, an extradition hearing was held in Bangkok. In August of 2009, the Bangkok Criminal Court ruled in Bout’s favour. However, an appeal lodged by the United States the following year reversed the decision. As a result, Bout was extradited to the United States in late 2010. This caused an uproar from the Russian government, which claimed that the extradition was politically motivated and illegal. The Russian government responded by imposing sanctions on anyone involved in the rendition.
(U.S. Department of Justice photo via Getty Images)
Allegation and conviction
After his arrest in Bangkok, Bout was charged by the US Department of Justice with conspiring to murder US citizens and officials. a conspiracy to provide resources to a foreign terrorist organization; Conspiracy to deliver anti-aircraft missiles. More charges were brought against him in early 2010. Ultimately, Bout was convicted by a federal court in Manhattan in November of 2011. In April of the following year, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Britney Greiner Exchange
In 2022, it was reported that the Biden administration offered Bot to Russia in exchange for the release of WNBA star Britney Greiner, who was being held on drug possession charges.
A bot has influenced or been the subject of a number of media properties. In 2005, it was the focus of chapter three of Nick Kochan’s book “The Washing Machine.” That same year, Butt was allegedly the inspiration for the crime thriller “Lord of War,” starring Nicolas Cage as an international arms dealer. Bout was also the subject of the 2014 documentary “The Notorious Mr. Bout” and episodes of the documentary series “Manhunt: Kill or Capture” and “Damian Lewis: Spy Wars.”
[ad_2]
