Vladimir Bout, the Russian arms dealer, has a net worth of $50 million, according to Forbes Magazine. Viktor Bout is accused of utilising his several air transport enterprises to smuggle weapons worth billions of dollars from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Africa following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Viktor Bout’s net worth
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is worth $50 million, is a well-to-do businessman. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Viktor Bout is said to have utilised his multiple air transport companies to move weaponry from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Africa. Since then he has been charged with terrorism, and he was found guilty of conspiring to assassinate US officials and people by the US courts in 2011. Bout was convicted and given a 25-year prison sentence. “Lord of War,” which Nicolas Cage starred in, was released in 2005.
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Viktor Bout’s Early Life
Dushanbe in the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR was Viktor Bout’s birthplace on 13 January 1967. It’s not certain where he came from or how he was brought up, and even his exact year of birth isn’t certain. Assasination plots against US government officials and people in the United States were found in his possession after he was captured in Thailand in 2008. Bout was sentenced to 25 years in jail as a result. “Lord of War,” starring Nicolas Cage as Viktor, was released in 2005.
A graduate of the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, Bout went on to serve his country in the Soviet Union. In addition to Russian, he became fluent in Portuguese, Persian, Arabic, English, and French during his education. Bout is said to have served for the Soviet military as a translator because of his fluency in several languages. He is claimed to have let it out after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Viktor Bout’s Career
Following his discharge from the military, Bout held a variety of professions. In Angola, he started an air freight company named Air Cess, according to his personal website. The company worked with the United States, France, and the United Nations on various projects. Bout delivered supplies to Afghanistan’s previous government in 1994. Other reports claim that Bout served as a GRU major, KGB operative, or Soviet Air Force officer during his time in the Soviet Union.
At the start of 2008, the Drug Enforcement Administration carried out a sting operation with Bout as its target. Later, he was apprehended in Bangkok, Thailand, when an Interpol red notice filed by the United States led to his arrest. Later in the year, an extradition hearing took place in Bangkok. Bout’s conviction was overturned after the United States challenged the Bangkok Criminal Court’s decision in favour of him in August 2009. Late in 2010 Bout was finally extradited to America. As a result of the Russian government’s fury, it claimed that the extradition was illegal and motivated by politics. The Russian government retaliated by imposing sanctions on everyone involved in the extradition process.
When Bout was tried in absentia for document fraud in the Central African Republic in 2000, the charges against him were dropped and he was exonerated. Two years after Belgian investigators accused Bout of money laundering, Interpol issued a red notice. Prosecutors were forced to drop the case against Bout because he had no fixed residence and the case could not be prosecuted quickly enough. In the summer of 2004, an Executive Order banned Bout’s assets in the United States.
After leaving the military, Bout held a number of positions, according to the source. According to his own website, he founded Air Cess, an air freight firm based in Angola. Among the clients of the business were the United States, France, and the United Nations (UN). Deliveries were made to Afghanistan’s pre-Taliban government in 1994 by the bout. Other reports indicate that Bout was a GRU major, a KGB agent, or an officer in the Soviet Air Forces at the time of his death. After Brittney Griner, a WNBA player, was arrested on drug possession charges, the Biden administration was said to have promised Russia Bout in 2022.