Efraim Diveroli

Efraim Diveroli, President of AEY, Inc. in 2005 at age 19; Domestic Violence: “Mr. Diveroli was charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor, and felony possession of a stolen or forged document.” NYTimes; Ammoworks-Diveroli “continued selling arms while he awaited trial for conspiracy.[21] In late August 2008, he pleaded guilty on one count of conspiracy, and was sentenced to four years in prison on January 4, 2011.[22][23] He was further sentenced for possessing a weapon while out on bond[24] and had his overall sentence reduced for assisting in the investigation of the offense. Diveroli’s former partner David Packouz was sentenced to seven months’ house arrest.[8]”Wikipedia

David M. Packouz-VP of AEY, Inc., a licensed massage therapist born in 1982

Wikipedia: Efraim Diveroli (born December 20, 1985)[3] is an American former arms dealer and author.[4] His company, AEY Inc., was a major weapons contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. government suspended AEY for violating its contract after AEY provided 42-year-old substandard and unserviceable Chinese ammunition and attempted to re-brand and re-package it, thus violating the American arms embargo against China.[5][6][7] As a result of the publicity surrounding the contract and the age of the arms dealers – Diveroli was 21 and partner David Packouz was 25 when AEY landed the ammunition deal – the United States Army began a review of its contracting procedures.[6]

Diveroli was sentenced to four years in federal prison.[8] He is a central subject of the Todd Phillips dramedy film War Dogs, released in 2016.[9]

Diveroli was born on December 20, 1985, in Miami Beach, Florida, the son of Ateret and Michael Diveroli. The family was Orthodox Jewish, strictly observing all traditional Jewish laws. His grandfather, Yoav Botach, is one of the wealthiest property owners in Los Angeles, and his uncle is celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach.[10][11]

Diveroli returned home in March 2001 at the age of fifteen. After an argument with his uncle, he told his father he wanted to open a business specializing in arms, ammunition trading, and defense contracts with the U.S. Government. He convinced his father to sell him a shell company, AEY, Inc., named after the first initials of him and his siblings, which his father had incorporated as a small printing business, but had not done anything with in years.[4] Diveroli showed a penchant for arms dealing and quickly made a name for himself within the industry.[8] His young age and apparent talent led local media outlets to label him as an “arms wunderkind”.[12] Diveroli struggled with drug addiction and was also labeled as a “stoner arms dealer” by the media.[8] On March 27, 2008, the U.S. government suspended AEY Inc. for infringing upon the terms of its contract; in violation of a pre-existing arms embargo, the company was accused of supplying ammunition manufactured in China to the Afghan National Army and police. United States Army documents showed that the company totaled more than $200 million in contracts to supply ammunition, rifles, and other weapons in 2007.

Diveroli’s former partner, David Packouz, and Ralph Merrill, the group’s former chief financier, later filed separate lawsuits against Diveroli seeking payment of millions of dollars they say they were owed in connection to the weapons contract with the U.S. government.[20]

A company Diveroli owns, Ammoworks, continued selling arms while he awaited trial for conspiracy.[21] In late August 2008, he pleaded guilty on one count of conspiracy, and was sentenced to four years in prison on January 4, 2011.[22][23] He was further sentenced for possessing a weapon while out on bond[24] and had his overall sentence reduced for assisting in the investigation of the offense. Diveroli’s former partner David Packouz was sentenced to seven months’ house arrest.[8]

Main article: War Dogs (2016 film)

The story of Diveroli’s arms deals is the subject of the Todd Phillips comedy/drama film War Dogs, starring Jonah Hill as Diveroli and Miles Teller as his partner, David Packouz.[9]“

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Arms for Afghans NYTimes C. J. CHIVERS AEY was one of 10 companies to bid by the September 2006 deadline. Michael Diveroli, Efraim’s father, had incorporated the company in 1999, when Efraim was 13. For several years, a period when the company appeared to have limited activity, Michael Diveroli, who now operates a police supply company down the street from AEY’s office, was listed as the company’s sole executive.

In 2004, AEY listed Efraim Diveroli, then 18, as an officer with a 1 percent ownership stake.

The younger Diveroli’s munitions experience appeared to be limited to a short-lived job in Los Angeles for Botach Tactical, a military and police supply company owned by his uncle, Bar-Kochba Botach.

Mr. Diveroli cut off an interview when asked about Botach Tactical. Mr. Botach, reached by telephone, said that both Michael and Efraim Diveroli had briefly worked for him, but that after seeing the rush of federal contracts available after the wars began, they had struck out on their own.

“They just left me and took my customer base with them,” he said. “They basically said: ‘Why should we work for Botach? Let’s do it on our own.’ ”

As Efraim Diveroli arrived in Miami Beach, AEY was transforming itself by aggressively seeking security-related contracts.

Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.

With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.

In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking.

Moreover, tens of millions of the rifle and machine-gun cartridges were manufactured in China, making their procurement a possible violation of American law.

As AEY’s bid for its largest government contract was being considered, Mr. Diveroli’s personal difficulties continued. On Nov. 26, 2006, the Miami Beach police were called to his condominium during an argument between him and another girlfriend. According to the police report, he had thrown her “clothes out in the hallway and told her to get out.”

A witness told the police Mr. Diveroli had dragged her back into the apartment. The police found the woman crying; she said she had not been dragged. Mr. Diveroli was not charged.

On Dec. 21, 2006, the police were called back to the condominium. Mr. Diveroli and AEY’s vice president, David M. Packouz, had just been in a fight with the valet parking attendant.

Mr. Diveroli was charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor, and felony possession of a stolen or forged document.

The second charge placed his business in jeopardy. Mr. Diveroli had a federal firearms license, which was required for his work. With a felony conviction, the license would be nullified.

(Mr. Packouz was charged with battery and the charge was later dropped; he declined to be interviewed. To avoid a conviction on his record, Mr. Diveroli entered a six-month diversion program for first offenders in May 2007 that spared him from standing trial.)

A relative paid Mr. Diveroli’s $1,000 bail as his bid for the Afghan contract was in its final review.

By 2005, when Mr. Diveroli became AEY’s president at age 19, the company was bidding across a spectrum of government agencies and providing paramilitary equipment — weapons, helmets, ballistic vests, bomb suits, batteries and chargers for X-ray machines — for American aid to Pakistan, Bolivia and elsewhere.

It was also providing supplies to the American military in Iraq, where its business included a $5.7 million contract for rifles for Iraqi forces.”