How Two American Kids Became Big-time Arms Dealers (opens in new tab)

There's a relatively small group of people that get to bleed us like leeches because the defense department is run like the dumbest of all big organizations: limitless funds and no consequences for employees when they make bad decisions.

People make fun of the startup founder that sells his nascent company to Google for $20M as if he took advantage of the big dumb company. That guy doesn't hold a candle to even the smallest of the criminals milking the US on a daily basis.

"An ATF agent posing as an arms dealer spent weeks trying to wheedle Diveroli into selling arms. Diveroli refused, but he couldn't resist bragging about his exploits; as agents recorded his every word, he talked about hunting alligators and hogs in the Everglades with a .50-caliber rifle. Finally, the ATF agent lured Diveroli to a meeting, asking him to bring along a gun so they could go shooting together. Diveroli didn't bring a weapon — he knew that would constitute a felony. But the ATF agent, who had thoughtfully brought along a gun of his own, handed Diveroli a Glock to try out."

Sounds exactly like entrapment to me. Guy didn't want to break the law, but the LEO brought along an extra gun just to incriminate him.

"Efraim Diveroli, by contrast, knew exactly what he wanted to be: an arms dealer. It was the family business. His father brokered Kevlar jackets and other weapons-related paraphernalia to local police forces, and his uncle B.K. sold Glocks, Colts and Sig Sauers to law enforcement. Kicked out of school in the ninth grade, Diveroli was sent to Los Angeles to work for his uncle. As an apprentice arms dealer, he proved to be a quick study. By the time he was 16, he was traveling the country selling weapons."

In this business, which is all about connections, Diveroli was blessed with a network of contacts through his family. Without these, it is doubtful Diveroli would ever have achieved anything close to what he did.

With better ethics, I would love to have someone like that on my team:

"Diveroli knew how to win them over with a mixture of charm, patriotism and a keen sense of how to play to the military culture; he could yes sir and no sir with the best of them. To get the inside dirt on a deal, he would call the official in charge of the contract and pretend to be a colonel or even a general. "He would be toasted, but you would never know it," says Packouz. "When he was trying to get a deal, he was totally convincing. But if he was about to lose a deal, his voice would start shaking. He would say that he was running a very small business, even though he had millions in the bank. He said that if the deal fell through he was going to be ruined. He was going to lose his house. His wife and kids were going to go hungry. He would literally cry. I didn't know if it was psychosis or acting, but he absolutely believed what he was saying."

These types of situations with middlemen and lowest bid seem ripe for corruption and substituting poorer goods for the desired ones - seems like the taxpayer is getting ripped off at the expense of the middlemen and defense companies.

This isn't the first time I'm reading a story and thinking to myself but wait, I thought all successful gov contractors pulled strings like this.

To fight simultaneous wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration had decided to outsource virtually every facet of America's military operations, from building and staffing Army bases to hiring mercenaries to provide security for diplomats abroad. After Bush took office, private military contracts soared from $145 billion in 2001 to $390 billion in 2008. Federal contracting rules were routinely ignored or skirted...

Thanks for reposting.

Crime does pay apparently. Were all financial assets seized or not?