Viktor Bout

Viktor Anatolyevich Bout (Russian: Виктор Анатольевич Бут) (born 13 January 1967, near Dushanbe, Tajik SSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian businessman who established a number of air cargo companies. He is currently detained by the United States federal government, facing trial on charges that stem from his alleged agreement to arm a terrorist group.
A former Soviet military translator, Bout had reportedly made a significant amount of money through his multiple air transport companies shipping cargo mostly in Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Just as willing to ship cargo for Charles Taylor in Liberia as he was for the United Nations in Sudan and the United States in Iraq, Bout may have facilitated huge arms shipments into various civil wars in Africa with his private air cargo fleets during the 1990s.

In cooperation with American authorities, Royal Thai Police arrested Bout in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2008. The United States demanded his extradition, which was eventually mandated by the Thai High Court in August 2010. Before his extradition to the United States in November 2010, he expressed confidence that his trial would eventually lead to his acquittal. Bout is currently incarcerated in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City.

Having graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, he is said to be fluent in six languages. Bout's personal website states that he served in the Soviet Army as a translator, holding the rank of Lieutenant.

Russia did not want Bout to face trial and called the Thai court decision in 2010 politically motivated. Its Foreign Ministry took steps to prevent his extradition to the US; Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that Bout was innocent.
On 18 November 2010, shortly after Bout's extradition to the US, Russian President Medvedev's aide Sergei Eduardovich Prikhodko claimed that Russia had "nothing to hide" in Bout's criminal case stating, "it is in our interest that the investigation... be brought to completion, and [Bout] should answer all the questions the American justice system has."

The day after his Bangkok arrest, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Bout with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to kill American officers or employees, and conspiring to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile.
Additional charges against him were filed in February 2010. These include illegal purchase of aircraft, wire fraud, and money laundering.

The source of material - http://en.wikipedia.org/