Two Miami Beach stoners in their 20s are the target of a semicircle of balding military bureaucrats who are peering across a mahogany desk at them.
One of the bureaucrats murmurs, “Frankly, we were a tad concerned with your performance history against a deal of this size.”
But his nearly identical partner says, “After meeting you two in person, we feel like were in good hands on this one.”
Not to mention that your offer was too alluring for us to reject, number one continues.
The two bros stare at each other, wide-eyed with shock. They’ve been awarded a $300 million contract to supply the Afghan army with ammunition. They just need to figure out how to execute it at this point.
The scene is from War Dogs, the Warner Bros. a movie that debuts on August 19 and features Miles Teller and Jonah Hill as pot-smoking arms dealers And it’s remarkably accurate to what actually transpired with a trio from the Mid-Beach Beth Israel synagogue.
Efraim Diveroli, David Packouz, and Alex Podrizki were at the epicenter of a massive international gunrunning operation for a few delirious months beginning in 2007. Through Eastern Europe, they transported Chinese ammunition to the front lines of Afghanistan. But after a military investigation, negative international press, a mysterious death in Albania, and eventually, federal charges that shattered their lives, the plan spectacularly failed.
War Dogs covers that impossible-to-invent narrative in Hollywood style. However, the old friends and their former business partners in the arms trade are still at war today. Podrizki and Packouz are retaliating against Diveroli after he places a lot of the blame for the failed business on them in a new memoir.
“It’s crucial that everyone understands that Efraims book is a work of fiction,” says Packouz. “Its the work of a megalomaniac, a damaged person. “.
Millions of dollars are still at stake in federal and Miami-Dade County courtrooms. In a lawsuit against Diveroli, Packouz and Ralph Merrill, the former chief financial officer of the group, claim they are owed money from the ill-fated $300 million contract with the U S. government. Both claim that Diveroli was able to escape prison with millions of dollars in his bank accounts.
Merrill claims he lost his entire life savings of $1. “He burned me for all of my principal plus all the years of interest,” Merrill claims. 3 million — to Diveroli. “I’m in the doldrums right now, surviving on social security and whatever I can borrow from family members.” “.
Diveroli, though, says hes the one getting a raw deal. He is vehemently disputing Packouz’s legal claims after just being released from federal prison. And hes suing Warner Bros. — He claims that the film’s creators appropriated the concept for War Dogs from his autobiography, Once a Gunrunner, which he self-published in June.
Despite being a rebellious child, Diveroli writes, “I overcame my challenges, worked hard, and built my business.” Diveroli declined to comment for this article due to pending legal matters. “Until some self-righteous New York Times reporters twisted the truth, life was good,” I’m a proud American who loves his country, but the government screwed me. “.
Nearly as dramatic as the fictitious tale that is soon to be released on big screens is the untold tale of what happened after the three young Miami residents engaged in arms dealing.
Efraim Diveroli was always adept at commanding attention. The overweight child would approach older neighbors at synagogue, yank off their yarmulkes, and dash away laughing uncontrollably. Diveroli would wait a short while, then repeat the process after the bigger kids had invariably chased him down and usually beaten him.
According to local lore, the young mischief-maker even broke into the historic Miami Beach synagogue Beth Israel one Friday night and turned out the lights. The entire congregation allegedly had to pray in the dark because Orthodox Jews aren’t allowed to touch switches on the Sabbath.
The constant practical jokes were frequently childish rather than funny to Podrizki and Packouz, who were four years older than Diveroli. My younger friends found it to be pretty funny, but I thought it was kind of stupid,” Packouz admits. “I pretty much just put up with him. “.
Early on, as outsiders in their Jewish neighborhood (or “the shtetl,” as Podrizki jokingly refers to it), Packouz and Podrizki became close friends. Packouz has intense aquamarine eyes and a clean-shaven pate. Podrizki’s parents broke the mold; his father, a Frenchman, met his mother, a Mexican Jew, while she was pursuing a career in medicine in her native country. Packouz, a guitarist and pot smoker, had never embraced the neighborhood’s luxury-car, well-groomed aesthetic. When they were teenagers, the pair started wearing ripped jeans and listening to grunge music. They liked to hang by the ocean at night.
Diveroli joined the group at that point because he had somewhat matured. He also came from an eclectic background. His father and one of his uncles supplied police departments with equipment. A celebrity rabbi named Shmuley Boteach, who was friends with Oprah and wrote the best-selling book Kosher Sex, is another uncle who is currently supporting Donald Trump’s campaign.
Podrizki describes Efraim as “a smart guy and a very funny guy.” “He had a very cynical sense of humor. “.
Diveroli claims in his autobiography that he began sneakily chugging wine at the age of 12. He smoked weed by the time he was 15. For the following ten or more years, he writes, “I went strong on the good herb because I loved it.” (A psychiatrist would subsequently testify in court that his drug use was associated with mental illness.) Due to untreated mental health and developmental issues, Efraims severe acting-out behavior was actually a cry for help and attention from a severely disturbed young man, according to Dr Steven Strumwasser testified in a 2011 hearing. In his book, Diveroli criticizes Strumwasser’s analysis, saying, “I detested the guy.” “).
At the age of 14, Diveroli was expelled from a private Hebrew school. Packouz and Podrizki went to different high schools. Following graduation, Packouz spent two years in Israel, while Podrizki attended Florida International University for political science before relocating to France to teach English to the armed forces. The young Diveroli relocated to Los Angeles to work for his uncle’s gun-dealing operation, where he would later become well-known.
By the time he returned to Miami in 2004, Diveroli, then 19 years old, was prepared to go it alone in the arms trade. And he desired Packouz, who was supporting himself by working as a South Beach massage therapist to pay for college, to accompany him. According to Packouz, who agreed to work for Diverolis company, which was known as AEY — the initials of Efraim and his siblings, Aaron, Avigail, Avrohom, and Yeshaya — in November 2005, “He said, I always thought you were a smart, organized guy, and I need a guy like you in my corner,”
Arms and the Dudes, a 2015 book by Rolling Stone writer Guy Lawson that served as the basis for the film War Dogs, is built on the duo’s insane exploits over the course of the following three years.
In short, Diveroli learned how to manipulate the Department of Defense’s online bidding system at a time when the military was in need of affordable ammunition in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is how a dropout and a South Beach masseuse entered the global weapons industry. The two ran a lean business; AEY consisted of only Diveroli and Packouz in a 300-square-foot office. They obtained outdated firearms and ammunition from Eastern Europe and Asia. It allowed them to regularly outbid respected defense firms. At first, the orders were modest: Korea sent 50,000 gallons of jet fuel, and Wyoming received Kevlar helmets. In those days, it was great, Packouz says.
Packouz claims that “[Efraim] really is a good negotiator because he’s a master bullshit artist.” He could say, “The sky is pink,” with such conviction that it appears as though he truly believes it when he looks you in the eye. “.
But his old friends claim that Diveroli changed as AEY secured larger and larger deals. “As he became more financially successful, he became more megalomaniacal. He fantasized about being a powerful gangster, according to Podrizki. “He started treating everyone like crap, trying to intimidate everyone. “.
By 2007, Packouz was fed up. But then, in January, AEY achieved its greatest success with the contract that could enable Packouz to leave the company wealthy enough to devote himself to his true passion, music. In the movie War Dogs, smirking Pentagon officials are shown handing the young men the nearly $300 million ammunition contract. The two were actually back in Miami, celebrating with cocaine and Cristal bottles.
They would purchase used bullets on the cheap in Albania and then ship them to the frontlines of the war against the Taliban as part of their cunning plan to provide ammunition to the Afghans. Diveroli hired retired Mormon gun manufacturer Ralph Merrill, whom he had met while working in Los Angeles, to help finance the operation. Merrill eventually put up $1. 5 million.
But the two soon realized they also required a local Albanian contact. Thats where Podrizki came in. He spoke several languages, had served in the French military, and was well-versed in European geography. However, Podrizki claims that when they offered him the position, he balked. He opposed the war in Iraq. But hed also always dreamed of becoming a foreign-aid worker. This seemed like one way in. He agreed, but with one stipulation: he would only work with Packouz, not Diveroli.
Podrizki discovered a significant issue in Albania right away: every piece of ammunition had Chinese labels. The U. S. military has a ban on buying munitions from communist China. Diveroli, however, was unconcerned because technically the ammunition was from Albania, so they wouldn’t be breaking any rules. That required Podrizki to take on a new task: repackaging everything to make the bullets’ Chinese origin less obvious.
According to Podrizki, “I looked at the rules in front of me and I saw it possibly, at worst, as a civil infraction.” “I knew it was breaking the law, but I figured [the government] didn’t care,” “.
The operation followed the plan for months, with the exception of a confrontation with dishonest government officials and the Albanian Mafia. Ukrainian jets delivered the repackaged ammunition to the front lines in Afghanistan in thousands of crates.
The young Miamians anticipated their big payday. Diveroli and Packouz both purchased luxury vehicles and moved into the bayfront Flamingo condo in South Beach. Packouz and Diveroli spent a lot of time snorting coke at SoBe clubs while Podrizki worked in Tirana.
And then, disaster struck. By freezing Kosta Trebicka out of the repacking contract, AEY blew a local deal. After recording conversations about the repackaged Chinese ammunition, the incensed businessman turned informant and alerted authorities. Later, he also met with a reporter from the New York Times.
On August 23, 2007, federal agents raided AEYs offices. When that time came, Diveroli and Packouz had already broken up due to the strain of handling the enormous deal. Meanwhile, Podrizki was stranded in Albania and terrified of the raid. Even worse, he claims that when he called Diveroli, an associate of Diveroli told another worker in the background to lie and claim that the office had been evacuated due to a bomb threat. “Why is he not telling the truth?” Podrizki worried. Is he going to try to put the blame for everything on me?
In order to avoid the airport, Podrizki fled Albania by boating to Italy. He then hired a lawyer to meet with the federal authorities. Packouz, who was already engaged in conflict with Diveroli over his share of the Afghan profits, quickly made the decision to work together.
According to Podrizki, “David turned on him because he stole his money.” “I snapped at him because he left me in Albania hanging.” “.
Then, in May 2008, the New York Times front page investigation into AEY appeared. The Times portrayed the young men’s business as a glaring illustration of everything that was wrong with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars under the Bush administration. The three reporters who wrote the story questioned how these jaded slackers could have gotten a sizable $300 million arms contract.
By assisting the federal authorities in their pursuit of Diveroli, Podrizki and Packouz hoped to avoid being charged. However, prosecutors charged the Miamians with 71 counts of fraud and conspiracy in July 2008 amid the controversy surrounding the Times report. Merrill was accused of similar charges.
They received a startling reminder of the dangers ahead three months later when whistleblower Trebicka was discovered dead by a roadside in Albania. Authorities ruled his death, which was caused by a one-car collision, to be accidental. But all of the arms dealers think that the killing was ordered by dishonest government officials or the mob in order to silence him. (“No one thought it was an accident,” writes Diveroli in his book ).
Diveroli, Packouz, and Podrizki entered a guilty plea after becoming increasingly concerned for their safety and facing potential sentences of hundreds of years. Merrill alone chose to go to trial.
All three felt they were being railroaded. They point out that the Army never discovered any proof that the munitions didn’t function, despite claims that the Chinese ammo was of poor quality. At worst, they say, they bent an outdated bureaucratic rule.
“I take responsibility for it,” Podrizki says. “I shouldn’t have engaged in anything to do with weapons or war,” However, I don’t believe I did anything dishonest, certainly nothing illegal. “.
Over a bugged, static-choked prison phone line, Efraim Diverolis’ irate voice can be heard. He asks his father, Michael, “The question is, are you ready to get your hands a little dirty?”
On February 6, 2011, Diveroli has completed the first month of a four-year prison sentence. Resulting from his irrational desire to wheel and deal, he is still awaiting a second sentencing hearing. The previous August, while he was on bond, undercover federal agents had arrested him for illegally possessing firearms while attempting to sell extra ammunition.
But he is now confident that he has discovered a way to leave prison early. He intends to use a nearby businessman as a sting target. And he’s asking his father for assistance, but he’s reluctant to reveal too much of his strategy on the recorded line.
He yells at his father, who appears perplexed by his son’s words, “This is a big game.” “Another chicken must enter the farm before one chicken can leave it.” If [this guy] has to spend the rest of his life in prison, I’ll get a year off.” that is what is going to happen!”.
What does Aey stand for in war dogs?
Report This. In this movie, Efraim (Jonah Hill) gets upset with a worker for saying that the letters AEY don’t stand for anything. In real life, the initials do mean something.
The Albanian driver Bashkim (JB Blanc) vanishes, is never seen or heard from again, and is deemed dead in the film. In reality, it was Albanian businessman Kosta Trebicka who was contracted by AEY Inc. to manufacture cardboard boxes. who was discovered barely alive on a rural Albanian roadside next to his truck, which had overturned, to repackage the ammunition He passed away before the authorities and medical personnel could save him. Given that Trebicka exposed the entire $298 million arms deal, some people think his death was not the result of an accident but rather something more sinister. He did so after the Albanian Defense Ministry replaced his company with one owned by a friend of the prime minister’s son and removed him from the agreement. This motivated him to start speaking out against Albania’s corruption. We discovered that Trebicka was a witness to a similar deadly blast at a munitions facility in the town of Gedric, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people, including children, during our research into the real War Dogs story. Some think he might have been murdered in order to prevent him from testifying about the explosion -NYTimes. com.
Once a Gun Runner, a self-published memoir by Efraim Diveroli about his experiences as an arms dealer, is categorically not the version of events that Packouz recalls. Diveroli was released from prison in 2015. The following year he filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. , the War Dogs film’s Todd Phillips and other contributors He was disappointed that the studio abandoned his plans to adapt his own manuscript into a film while he was incarcerated in favor of Guy Lawson’s Rolling Stone article. Diveroli claimed that the filmmakers stole his manuscript’s content without his permission. David Packouz, meanwhile, achieved success once more, this time in a legal manner. BeatBuddy, the “first guitar pedal drum machine,” was developed in 2014 by the formerly aspiring musician. It became one of the most popular items ever to receive funding on the crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo. He is currently the CEO of the music technology company Singular Sound. Regarding his time selling weapons, Packouz claims, “I was going to make millions.” “I wasn’t going to be an arms dealer forever; I was going to start a music career with the money,” I had never even owned a gun. But working in a field that determined the fate of nations was exciting and fascinating. No one else our age was transacting in weapons on a global scale. ” -Rolling Stone.
The 2011 Rolling Stone article by journalist Guy Lawson, on which the film was based, actually places a greater emphasis on the Pentagon’s responsibility, particularly for their lax requirements for the ammunition and their failure to thoroughly vet the company they were working with. After importing illegal firearms, AEY was in fact put on the State Department’s “watch list,” but the Pentagon never looked at it. Additionally, they neglected to take into account AEY’s previous bid defaults, which led to a less than stellar track record. Regarding the real events portrayed in the film, Lawson observes that “they got a lot of it in.” “However, you watch the conclusion and believe it’s about these [two] guys,” Its not. Its about the system. The Pentagon had concealed the actions taken by private contractors like AEY to obtain the weapons. Although it was clear that the Pentagon was aware that AEY had been supplying Afghanistan with Chinese-made ammunition (it was printed right there on the bullets), the government was not held accountable in the case. However, a Pentagon investigation found that the cancellation of the contract resulted in severe shortages of ammunition in Afghanistan in 2008. -LA Times.
Yes. They won the contract thanks to their $298 million bid, which beat out well-known rivals like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics by about $53 million. In the contract, the government omitted to specify an upper age limit for the ammunition. Due to this, AEY was able to obtain inexpensive ammo that was produced in 1966, during the Vietnam War. Like in the movie, rival businesses also spread rumors that they (AEY) were drug dealers in over their heads, and The New York Times also learned about this. Their commission on the Afghan Deal increased to a hefty $85 million as they kept finding cheaper places to purchase the ammunition. The Afghan deal wasn’t AEY Inc.’s first transaction, according to Daily Mail Online had operated dishonestly. Efraim Diveroli once traded high-end weapons for cheap Korean copies to double his money on a deal. Another time, he sent the Iraqi Army helmets of lower quality than those they had paid for. -Mirror Online.
Yes. We discovered that a third friend, 24-year-old pot dealer Alex Podrizki, was omitted from the movie while researching the War Dogs true story. David Packouz was not sent as the point person in Albania; Alex was. He was also the one who identified the ammunition as being Chinese and being stored in Chinese crates. The title of Guy Lawson’s article-turned-book, Arms and the Dudes: How Three Stoners from Miami Beach Became the Most Unlikely Gunrunners in History, on which the film is based, makes reference to the three friends. -Rolling Stone Alex Podrizki (right) and David Packouz at the War Dogs premiere in 2016 Podrizki wasn’t included in the movie but is in Guy Lawson’s book (shown).
What happens at the end of ‘War Dogs’?
If you intend to stream this movie and don’t want to know about any of its finer plot points, stop reading now because there are obviously MASSIVE SPOILERS ahead.
Assuming you’re still reading, here’s what happens in War Dogs’ climax: Efraim receives a final sentence of four years in prison for his crimes, while David receives only seven months of house arrest in exchange for his full cooperation with authorities. Article continues below advertisement.
Here’s where things get interesting: Henry later encounters David and expresses regret for kidnapping him while he was in Albania. He also expresses gratitude to David for not disclosing his identity to the FBI. Henry remains silent when David inquires about whether their meeting was a coincidence and what happened to Bashkim. If David doesn’t ask any more questions, Henry will instead give him a briefcase filled with cash.
When the movie ends, David is contemplating the money, and the audience is unsure whether he will accept it or not. Article continues below advertisement.
FAQ
What happened to the taxi driver War Dogs?
At the conclusion of War Dogs, Efraim receives a four-year prison term for his numerous crimes, while David receives a seven-month house arrest in exchange for his cooperation. Months later, Henry apologises to David after meeting him.
Are Packouz and Diveroli still friends?
Although Packouz and Diveroli are depicted in War Dogs as being close friends, which they were, the two have severed ties since their arms operation was shut down. Packouz’s life has recently changed, in part as a result of his participation in the Todd Phillips movie.
Did Efraim betray David?
Eventually, David and Efraim secure The Afghan Deal, a $300 million agreement to provide the American military with 100 million rounds of AK-47 ammunition. As time passes, though, Efraim develops a lust for power and begins betraying people, even going as far as to renege on his partnership agreement with David.
Did David Packouz take the money at the end?
Did David Packouz receive a portion of the Afghan Deal from the real Henry Girard? Although it may give the movie a nice ending, especially for Miles Teller’s character, the briefcase of hush money that Bradley Cooper’s character gives to David Packouz (Miles Teller) is entirely fictitious.