Organized Crime and Coruption Project

A Manhattan federal jury found Russian Viktor Bout guilty Wednesday evening on four counts of conspiracy to sell antiaircraft weapons and other arms to a group designated by the US as terrorists.  Bout, 44, will be sentenced in February, and faces 25 years to life in prison.

The verdict completes a long standing investigation and a sting operation that started five years ago, when undercover agents posed as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), trying to buy arms from Bout.  Bout and another associate, Andrew Smulian, who testified for the prosecution, were arrested in a Bangkok hotel room in June 2008 after they met with the agents. FARC is considered a terrorist group by the US Government.

“With today’s swift verdict, justice has been done and a very dangerous man will be behind bars,” said Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “As the evidence at trial showed, Viktor Bout was ready to sell a weapons arsenal that would be the envy of some small countries. He aimed to sell those weapons to terrorists for the purpose of killing Americans.”

Bharara was alluding to comments made by Bout during the fateful meeting in Thailand, where Bout was recorded telling the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents that he was happy to sell them the weapons because he and FARC shared the “same enemy”—the United States.

Bout was found guilty on all four counts against him: conspiracy to kill Americans, conspiracy to kill U.S. government officers and employees, conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, and conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

In closing arguments, assistant US attorney Brendan McGuire said that Bout “did everything he could to show he could be the one-stop shop for the FARC.”

His defense attorney Albert Dayan maintained that his client had been wrongfully accused.  He told the jury that Bout only pretended that he would sell the arms in order to sell off two old cargo planes for $5.  He said he would appeal the verdict.

“The jury has spoken, but its position is still not correct. This is not the end,” he said, adding that the decision was based on “speculation, innuendo and conjecture.”

Russia has fought hard at every step of the process.  Due to Russian pressure on Thai authorities, it took over two years to extradite Bout to the United States.  Russian officials today questioned the fairness of the decision.  Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said that pressure by the US authorities “put in doubt the very basis on which the charge was made and, accordingly, the fairness of the verdict itself.”

He said that Russian authorities were working to bring Bout back to his “motherland.”

Bout, whose work earned him the moniker the “Merchant of Death,” was an officer in the Soviet air force.  His career selling weapons, sometimes allegedly selling to both sides during a conflict, is said to be the inspiration for “The Lord of War,” in which his character is played by Nicholas Cage.

Before being sanctioned by the United Nations (UN) in 2004, Bout had been a UN contractor shipping cargo  for the conflict in Sudan.  Ironically, he also transported goods and arms for the United States military during the war in Iraq.