The Legal Issues of Victor Bout

On March 6th, 2008, Victor Bout was accused by the American government of "conspiring to provide support to FARC, to an entity placed under sanctions by the Bush administration." The text of the indictment filed by US government can be downloaded in the documents page, and more information about this case can be found in the US case page.

That is the accusation against Victor Bout. For a matter of fact, all of what you've been hearing and reading about Victor since forever was never-ever substantiated or found to be true by the numerous investigations carried out by law enforcement worldwide. Victor's name was introduced to the UN in a report prepared by a corrupt UN contractor, and since then, it was used over and over, snow-balling to the size we see now.  Victor was an easy target that never fired back, and the story became the only source of income for the self-proclaimed "experts" like Peleman, Farah, and other opportunists who made living for years out of the story they invented. 

The question is why did all of the experts fail to pursue any government to bring charges against Victor Bout for arms trafficking despite all of the alleged evidence they claim to possess?  The answer is they do not have any evidence because it never existed. Victor may have violated some laws somewhere, just like we all have done sometime; however, he was not that arms trafficking man presented to the public by the propaganda jockeys through the media. The idea of a person that is been watched and traced by the world's law enforcement not to be caught defies logic.

Ten years ago, the person who created the story of Victor Bout, a Belgian person who studied 14th century poetry, started a carrier as a private investigator after failing to join the Belgian police. That person was Johan Peleman, and the place was Ostend where Victor had an office which was managed by a Belgian pilot named Ronald De Smet.  Ronald knew Peleman, and Peleman who was writing about the questionable operations in Ostend airport saw the opportunity. From there, what started as a mutually beneficial relation, turned later into the story of the "merchant of death" and you know the rest.

Prior to the current legal issue Victor is facing, there was another issue that developed immediately upon the break of Bout-Peleman relation. Of course, that had to happen in Belgium where Peleman has some people to influence. The issue did not involve any arms business or arms trafficking, and the case was closed and dropped after the statute of limitation expired without finding any evidence to support the accusation. See the Belgian case for more details.