The DEA announced today the arrest of a co-conspirator of "Death Merchant" Viktor Bout (Bout is seen being taken into custody in the above DEA photo). You can read the announcement below:
DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart and Manhattan U.S. Attorney
Preet Bharara, announced that RICHARD AMMAR CHICHAKLI, an associate of convicted
international arms dealer, Viktor Bout, was arrested yesterday in Australia for,
among other things, allegedly conspiring with Bout and others to violate the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) by attempting to purchase
two aircraft from companies located in the U.S., in violation of economic
sanctions that prohibited such financial transactions. In addition, CHICHAKLI is
also charged with money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and six
separate counts of wire fraud, in connection with the attempted aircraft
purchases. CHICHAKLI, a citizen of Syria and the U.S., was arrested by
Australian authorities at the request of the U.S.
“The international law enforcement community has long
recognized Richard Chichakli as a key criminal facilitator in Viktor Bout’s
global weapons trafficking regime and his arrest means the world is safer and
more secure,” Leonhart said. “Bout merged drug cartels with terrorist enablers,
and his close associate, Chichakli, worked to ensure they could ship weapons and
conduct illicit business around the world. DEA continues to forge strong
partnerships worldwide and applauds our Australian police partners.”
Bharara said: “As alleged, Richard Ammar Chichakli consorted
with the world’s most notorious arms trafficker in the purchase of aircraft that
would be used to transport weapons to some of the world’s bloodiest conflict
zones, in violation of international sanctions. Thanks to the cooperative
efforts of all of our law enforcement partners, both here and abroad, Chichakli
has finally been apprehended and will now face justice.”
According to the Superseding Indictment previously filed in
Manhattan federal court and other court documents:
Bout is presently serving a 25-year prison term as a result of
his November 2011 conviction in this district for conspiring to sell millions of
dollars of weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the
“FARC”), a designated foreign terrorist organization based in Colombia. Prior to
his arrest on those charges in March 2008, in Thailand, and since the 1990s,
Bout was an international weapons trafficker. Bout carried out his massive
weaponstrafficking business by assembling a fleet of cargo airplanes capable of
transporting weapons and military equipment to various parts of the world,
including Africa, South America, and the Middle East.
The arms Bout has sold or brokered have fueled conflicts and
supported regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan. CHICHAKLI had been a close associate of
Bout’s since at least the mid-1990s, assisting in the operations and financial
management of his network of aircraft companies. As a result of Bout’s role in
pouring arms into these international conflicts, his relationship with
CHICHAKLI, and Bout and CHICHAKLI’s close relationship with former Liberian
President Charles Taylor, both Bout and CHICHAKLI have been the subject of
United Nations Security Council (“UNSC”) sanctions restricting their travel and
their ability to conduct business around the world. In addition, more than 25
companies affiliated with Bout and CHICHAKLI have been listed by the UNSC as
subject to similar restrictions concerning their assets and financial
transactions.
In 2004, consistent with the sanctions previously adopted by
the UNSC concerning Liberia, the President of the United States issued an
executive order prohibiting any transactions or dealings within the U.S. by
individuals affiliated with former President Taylor. Accordingly, the U.S.
Department of Treasury, pursuant to its authority under IEEPA, prohibited Bout
from conducting any business in the U.S. In 2005, that prohibition was extended
to CHICHAKLI.
The United Nations and IEEPA sanctions encumbered CHICHAKLI’s
and Bout’s efforts to conduct business within their existing corporate
structures. Accordingly, CHICHAKLI and Bout took steps to form new companies,
and to register these companies in the names of other individuals in order to
create the false appearance that they had no affiliation with them. One such
company – Samar Airlines – was created in 2004, right after the majority of
United Nations and IEEPA sanctions became effective. CHICHAKLI and Bout were
personally involved in the operational and business affairs and decisions of
Samar Airlines, though they held out other individuals as being the officers of
the company. In 2007, in violation of the IEEPA sanctions to which they were
subject at the time, CHICHAKLI and Bout, acting through Samar Airlines,
contracted to purchase two Boeing aircraft from companies located in the
U.S.
In connection with the purchase of these aircraft and related
services, CHICHAKLI and Bout electronically transferred more than $1.7 million
through banks in New York and into bank accounts located in the U.S. They did so
through a number of front companies, the assets of which were also owned and
controlled by Bout, in order to evade the UNSC’s sanctions regime and IEEPA
prohibitions. Upon the discovery that CHICHAKLI was connected to Samar Airlines,
the U.S. Treasury Department blocked the funds that had been transferred into
the bank accounts of the U.S. aviation companies. The Superseding Indictment
charges CHICHAKLI with nine separate offenses:
- Count One: Conspiracy
to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers
Act;
- Count Two: Money
laundering conspiracy;
- Count Three: Wire
fraud conspiracy; and
- Counts Four through
Nine: Wire fraud.
If convicted, CHICHAKLI faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in
prison on each of the nine counts. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge
William H. Pauley, III.
Note: You can read more about Victor Bout in my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the DEA via the below link:
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