Facts About Viktor Bout

Viktor Anatolyevich Bout is a Russian arms dealer, entrepreneur, and former Soviet military translator who is excellently known as Viktor Bout. He reportedly used his multiple air transport companies to smuggle weapons since the collapse of the Soviet Union from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. He has been imprisoned for more than a decade after he was lured to Thailand in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation that spanned three continents. Bout was conscripted into the Soviet Army when he was 18 years old after playing competitive volleyball as a teenager. He was also accused of intending to smuggle arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for use against U.S. forces in Colombia. Currently, Viktor has been held at the United States Penitentiary, Marion.

Viktor Bout Famous For

• He is a Russian arms dealer.
• He reportedly used his multiple air transport companies to smuggle weapons.

Where is Viktor Bout from?

Viktor Bout was born on 13th January 1967 with the real name of Viktor Anatolyevich Bout in Dushanbe, Tajik SSR, Soviet Union. He is Russian by nationality and Ukrainian by ethnicity. Likewise, his religious belief is in the Christian religion and his race is white. Viktor’s present age is 55 which he celebrated recently in 2022 and as per his birthdate, his star sign is Capricorn. He is the son of his mother, Raisa Bout whereas his father’s name is not known. He also has one sibling a brother named Sergei Bout. 
Moving to Viktor’s education, he graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages.

Viktor Bout Career Timeline

• Viktor Bout started his career serving in the Soviet Armed Forces as his personal website stated that he served in the Soviet Army as a translator.
• He is thought to have been discharged from the Soviet Army upon its dissolution in 1991 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, whereupon he began an air freight business.
• He was also involved with a Soviet military operation in Angola in the late 1980s assisting the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan Civil War.
• Later he kicks off his first air freight business, Air Cess, in Africa around the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union and made shipments for the pre-Taliban government of Afghanistan in 1994.
• He was also involved in negotiations to free Russian hostages during the 1995 Airstan incident in 1995 as well as he was first time formally mentioned in connection with arms trafficking. 
• He was suspected of supplying Charles Taylor with arms for use in the First Liberian Civil War in Liberia after which he was involved in arms dealings during the Yugoslav Wars.
• The Slobodna Bosna newspaper has claimed that Cengic was a business partner of Viktor, when 200,000 AK-47 rifles went missing in transit from Bosnia to Iraq in May 2006.
• He appeared in Moscow and stated that his aircraft made regular flights to Afghanistan after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan however he continued to deny any contact with al-Qaeda or the Taliban instead supplying the rebel Northern Alliance.
• He is suspected of supplying weapons to numerous armed groups in Africa in the 2000s and his network allegedly delivered surface-to-air missiles to Kenya to be used to attack an Israeli airliner during takeoff in 2002.
• He was reportedly seen meeting with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon during the run-up to the 2006 Lebanon War, while some sources claim Bout was actually in Russia when the meeting took place.
• As well, Records found in Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s former intelligence headquarters in Tripoli shortly after the overthrow of the Gaddafi government in 2011, indicated that in late September 2003, British intelligence officials told then-Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kusa that Viktor had a “considerable commercial presence in Libya” and aimed to expand his interests there.
• Furthermore, he was charged in the Central African Republic with forging documents and was convicted in “absentia”, but the charges were later dropped in 2000.
• Belgian authorities also requested that Interpol issue a notice for him on charges of money laundering.
• In July 2004, his U.S. assets were among those frozen under Executive Order 13348.
• Viktor was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand on 6th March 2008, by the Royal Thai Police based on an Interpol red notice requested by the United States based on conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
• Members of the United States Congress signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing their wish that the Bout extradition “remains a top priority” in February 2009.
• But, the Bangkok Criminal Court ruled in his favor, denying the United States request for extradition and citing the political, not criminal, nature of the case on 11th August 2009.
• Viktor was extradited from Thailand to the United States amid protests by the Russian government, which deemed it illegal on 16th November 2010.
• Russia’s Foreign Ministry took steps to prevent Bout from being extradited to the U.S. and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that Bout was innocent.
• It is thought that Viktor was of help to Russia’s intelligence agencies, and he is alleged to have connections to ranking Russian officials, including former deputy prime minister Igor Sechin.
• According to a 2002 United Nations report, his father-in-law Zuiguin “at one point held a high position in the KGB, perhaps even as high as a deputy chairman”.
• Also, in February 2010, additional charges against him were filed which included the illegal purchase of aircraft, wire fraud, and money laundering.
• On 2nd November 2011, he was convicted by a jury at a court in Manhattan and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the minimum sentence for conspiring to sell weapons to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist group on 5th April 2012.
• The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld Viktor’s conviction after rejecting his contention in September 2013 that he had been the victim of vindictive prosecution and that there was no legitimate law enforcement reason to prosecute him.
• Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s law firm represented him in 2014 by seeking a new trial to overturn his conviction.
• Moscow was exploring the possibility of a prisoner swap exchanging Whelan for Bout and a pilot named Konstantin Yaroshenko in June 2020.
• A Forbes article claimed the Biden administration had offered Viktor in exchange for the release of Women’s National Basketball Association star Brittney Griner in May 2022.
• Griner got arrested by Federal Security Service officers in Sheremetyevo International Airport on what would be minor drug charges in the U.S., but for which she faced 5-10 years in prison.
• The proposal got further support from President Joe Biden in July 2022 and on 27th July, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States had made a “substantial offer” to Russia to release Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player Brittney Griner and Whelan, but declined to say what the United States was offering.
• CNN reported on the following day that the U.S. had offered to exchange Bout for both Griner and Whelan.
• Apart from that, the film “Lord of War” is purportedly based on allegations about Bout’s personal history and black-market activities which were launched in 2005.
• The third chapter “Merchant of Death” of the 2005 book “The Washing Machine” by Nick Kochan is written about Viktor.
• Bout’s documentary, “The Notorious Mr. Bout” received its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
• Stephen Braun and Douglas Farah published a book about Bout: “Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible” in 2007 as well as the 2015 TV series “Manhunt: Kill or Capture”, episode 10, entitled “The Merchant of Death”, details the rise and fall of Viktor Bout.
• In the US documentary series “Damian Lewis: Spy Wars” published in 2019 by A&E Networks, episode 7 titled “The Merchant of Death” portrays the story of Viktor.

Who is Viktor Bout Wife?

Viktor Bout is a married man as he tied the knot with his beautiful wife Alla Bout in 1992. The couple is also blessed with a daughter named Elizaveta Bout. Viktor’s and Alla’s relationship is going on well however, Viktor is badly spending his time at the United States Penitentiary, Marion since June 2012. Being an arms dealer, Alla is supportive of him and there’s much love between the two. Concerning his sexual orientation, he is straight.

How much is Viktor Bout Net Worth?

Viktor Bout has a net worth of $50 million as of 2022 and he also has a handsome amount of salary which is around millions of dollars per year. He has earned a huge amount of money from his profession as his major source of income is his arms dealer career. 

What is the Height of Viktor Bout?

Viktor Bout stands at a tall height of 6 ft with a balanced body weight of 87 kg. He has light brown hair and dark brown eyes color. Moreover, his body build type is average.