Efraim Diveroli, 20-Something Arms-Dealing Fraudster, Sentenced To Four Years In Prison

Even as Floridians brace for a new wave of fraudulence to consume their waking existence, they can happily shut the door on another local bit of criminality as Efraim Diveroli, whose youthful exploits as a twenty-something arms contractor endangered lives and enshrined him as a tangential plot point in Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, was sentenced to four years in prison for that time he shipped "millions of rounds of prohibited Chinese-made ammunition to Afghan forces fighting alongside U.S. troops."

Y'all remember this guy, right?

The Pentagon contract with [Diveroli's company] AEY, awarded in 2007, specifically prohibits munitions from communist China. But according to court documents, Diveroli and the others simply repackaged the Chinese ammunition -- mostly 7.62mm rounds used in assault weapons like the AK-47 -- so that it appeared to originate from Albania.

Between June and October 2007, court documents showed, some 90 million rounds were sent to Afghanistan in 35 shipments. In return, the Pentagon paid AEY more than $10.3 million.

Why Albanian ammunition would have been preferable remains a mystery to me. For his part, Diveroli has some limited regrets:

Diveroli said the "good times" he enjoyed due to the sudden wealth brought on by the $300 million contract wasn't worth it. "No way it could ever be worth the suffering I have endured and my family has endured because of my actions," he said.

To say nothing of the people who may have potentially suffered because they were armed with banned junk from China. Diveroli faces additional sentencing in another gun possession case. It's a far cry from what he faced when he was initially indicted -- in a 2009 profile in Details, Tristam Korten notes that Diveroli, at one point, faced up to 510 years in prison.

MORE:
Miami Gun Runner Gets 4 Years, Says 'Good Times' Weren't Worth It [TPM Muckraker]
Playing with Fire [Details]

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Comments

[E-Jay]

07:19 AM on 01/06/2011

Let me get this straight...our govt can borrow billions from China and strap us all with unmanageable national deficit but it's a crime to outright buy ammo for our allies from them...? There is something wrong with this picture.

[bigkay]

06:12 PM on 01/05/2011

Why is the most powerful military in the world buying ammunition from Albania or China?
How does a 20 year old end up with $300 million of our tax dollars & is sentenced to 4years in prison?
What is his connection to the DOD?

[AG creative]

03:36 PM on 01/05/2011

the ol' Albanian switch!

[Blink2X]

02:08 PM on 01/05/2011

What? 4 years in jail for such behavior? Sounds like a prime candidate to head up the RNC.

[Sinister Minister]

02:07 PM on 01/05/2011

Too bad he wasn't caught with a pound of weed. The minimum mandatory I'm sure is more than four years.

[ennis438]

01:03 PM on 01/05/2011

Too bad Efraim has to go to prison. He seems like a perfect fit in the Rick Scott administration.

[LiberalFromDenver]

12:58 PM on 01/05/2011

The Albanian stuff is preferable because it's not made in China. There's been a real run on 7.62 x .39. A few years back, it was very hard to find because all of it was being bought up and sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, most of it before it even got into the US. Prices jumped. I think Russian production is back up to speed, though. There are stockpiles of this stuff all over the world, too. I'm sure that more than a few governments are rotating out their old stock in favor of new supply.

[gnorrfa]

11:26 AM on 01/05/2011

selling arms to our enemies, 4 yrs. publishing wikileaks? off with his head! justice?

[morgansher]

09:31 AM on 01/05/2011

Good. It's better than he deserves.

[CPAwADD]

09:05 AM on 01/05/2011

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Baretta (who oddly enough understands this very well)

[jws2346]

08:40 AM on 01/05/2011

I understand the banning of arms from our Worldly detractors/political enemies (wouldn't want to cut into the profits of our home grown D.E.A.T.H merchants), but were the Chinese rounds defective? I would think the rounds from China would be superior, because, from my understanding, it was the Asian that invented gun powder?

[morgansher]

09:35 AM on 01/05/2011

The fact that the Chinese invented gunpowder does not mean that their ammunition made today is a superior product. Have you forgotten such lovely scandals in China wherein milk for human consumption was adulterated with melamine deliberately, sickening and killing hundreds? Or petfood for export to the US and Canada, also tainted with melamine? Or that China has been one of the major sources for counterfeit goods from computer software and videos to countefeit designer clothing, luggage and handbags?

[jws2346]

06:56 PM on 01/06/2011

Whatsa' matter you have trouble reading English? NO WHERE did I state the Chinese arms were superior (UnF**KingBelievable). I do know for A F**KING FACT the Chinese arms worked just fine in 'Nam.

[Donns]

07:22 AM on 01/05/2011

Never mind guy, you do your time and we can get you elected Governor of Florida after you get out. You seem to have the qualifications that Floridians admire in their leaders.

[derekc06]

07:16 AM on 01/05/2011

I like how they spend money on the contract first, ask questions later.

[1differentdrummer]

05:43 AM on 01/05/2011

Nuts, the Chinese have great quality control. Oh, you mean they don't? Never mind.

He regrets losing the good times but he did it to himself. I seem to remember him as a young guy with absolutely no business at all getting a GWBush military contract. Tell me the Pentagon's procurement system was under control, please. Of course, it wasn't.

[Patrick Shaw]

01:10 AM on 01/05/2011

Ok we live in the most gun heavy society on the face of the planet....and a not a single ammo company here in the US or private persons starting an ammo company here in the US can make 7.62 rounds to complete this US contract on US soil ?

Pathetic.

[margoharris]

02:51 AM on 01/05/2011

Forty thousand factories have been moved overseas during the Bush Administration. The corporate greedsters and their politian puppets want to get rid of every decent paying job they can. You see it is not working out in China, workers there are wising up and demanding better working conditions and are organizing unions, they know they are being exploited. The cost of shipping from China is cutting into profits and the Chinese are NOT letting them into their markets. They want to create a low wage society, bust all unions and usher the Golden Age of Robber Barons, the ruling class. The middle class want too much they need to be wiped out. God help us all.

[Patrick Shaw]

03:11 AM on 01/05/2011

You mean were import the bullets for our drug gangs and right-wing militias ?

Geez...how the mighty have fallen. That seems so 3rd world.