Similarly, Ralph Merill, their financial backer of Mormon background who had also worked in arms manufacturing, was rewritten as a Jewish dry cleaner. Packouz and Podrizki were folded into the same character. War Dogs captured the drama of this insane venture, but took liberties with a few facts. AEY eventually delivered these illegal products to the government. They repackaged the arms into plainer containers, removed any taint of Chinese characters that would belie their origins. The young men had trouble finding the promised goods and eventually turned to contraband Chinese supplies.Įfraim Diveroli’s propensity for fudging the rules came through. The high of this contract didn’t last long, though. Then they got down to business to source the precious AK47s. The gun runners toasted their good fortune with a fair amount of bubbly, which Diveroli was just barely able to drink legally, and cocaine. AEY underbid the nearest competition by around $50 million and managed to sign a $300 million arms contract with the Pentagon. It was May 2007 and the war in Afghanistan was by all accounts going poorly when Diveroli seized his greatest chance to win. “If the other guy is happy, there’s still money on the table,” Packouz recalled. Packouz painted the picture of a man for whom winning wasn’t enough, he also wanted someone to lose. I didn’t know if it was psychosis or acting, but he absolutely believed what he was saying.”ĭiveroli was driven by a winner-takes-all mentality: If he didn’t walk away with everything, there was no point. His wife and kids were going to go hungry. He said that if the deal fell through he was going to be ruined. He would say that he was running a very small business, even though he had millions in the bank. But if he was about to lose a deal, his voice would start shaking. “When he was trying to get a deal, he was totally convincing. Those same traits made him apt to lose focus on the bigger picture, however. Diveroli’s company was thus the perfect supplier.ĭiveroli’s charm and persuasion made him ideal for these situations, as did his relentless drive and competition. The Bush administration began to prioritize smaller contractors to supply arms and ammunition.
The company operated mostly out of a Miami apartment, meaning the overhead was minimal, which made their bids smaller, and this was precisely what the American government wanted. He drafted an old friend from synagogue, David Packouz, to help with the complicated contracts, and another childhood pal, Alex Podrizki, took on the on-the-ground operations abroad. Efraim Diveroli subsequently became an officer at 18 and then president by 19.ĭiveroli’s AEY started small by nabbing federal contracts that bigger companies weren’t interested in. The elder Diveroli incorporated AEY (taken from the initials of the Diveroli children) in 1999. The younger Diveroli and his father, Michael Diveroli, ultimately decided to take aim at arms dealing on their own when they realized there were lucrative government contracts to be scooped up. Since he was a teenager, Diveroli had been exposed to arms and munitions while working for his uncle in Los Angeles at Botach Tactical. And his streak for pushing for greater and greater highs extended from one green into another: money.Īnd what brought him money was guns. “I loved it and went strong on the good herb for the next ten-plus years,” he remembered. As a child, he delighted in pushing boundaries and breaking rules - endless pranks, alcohol, marijuana. In many ways, Efraim Diveroli’s future path was not a surprise.
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