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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