Victor Bout

[Carsten Wiethoff]

From http://sbinvestigator.blogspot.com/2010/...onaco.html




VIKTOR BOUT & MONACO



Thailand has ordered the extradition of notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to the United States.

Robert Eringer, the spymaster of Monte Carlo, targeted Bout for investigation in late 2002, soon after being retained by Prince Albert II.

Eringer had reason to believe that, between 1996 and 2001, members of the Russian criminal underworld passed eight hundred million dollars through Pastor International.

Much of this revenue was generated by illegal arms sales. A key figure in these sales was Viktor Bout a.k.a. “The Lone Wolf” and “The Death Merchant of Africa” and “The Bill Gates of arms Dealing.”

These laundered funds were then invested into real estate in France, Spain, and Switzerland, with significant amounts invested in hotels throughout Europe and Asia.

Through his private airline Air Cess, Bout supplied the Taliban in Afghanistan with an air fleet: five Soviet-made Antonov 12s. Pastor International allegedly laundered the funds paid to Bout by the Taliban.

Pastor International also laundered between thirty-to-fifty million dollars emanating from the sale of heavy artillery, Kalashnikov rifles, aerial bombs and BM-21 rocket batteries to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Born in 1967 in Dushanbe, Bout was a former GRU officer who had served in the Soviet military in Angola.

Most people familiar with Bout’s activities believed him to be a private arms dealer. However, Eringer knew that Bout had been co-opted by the Russian external intelligence service (SVR).

Although Bout had been based in United Arab Emirates, he then moved to Moscow, protected by Russia’s internal security service (FSB) despite negative media and an arrest warrant from Interpol.