Botach
Tactical, Los Angeles, CA - The dispute is over treatment I received
while attempting to get a refund for a $2,700 product that was never delivered.
I was promised $250 in interest on top of this amount to cover my time and
trouble resolving this m Botach Tactical, Los Angeles, CA - The dispute is over
treatment I received while attempting to get a refund for a $2,700 product that
was never delivered. I was promised $250 in interest on top of this amount to
cover my time and trouble resolving this m
Botach Tactical, Los Angeles, CA - The dispute is over treatment I received
while attempting to get a refund for a $2,700 product that was never delivered.
I was promised $250 in interest on top of this amount to cover my time and
trouble resolving this matter. It was never received.
January 5, 2006 - Consumer Follow-up Message - From: Email User
UPDATE - Botach Tactical / FN M249 SAW
This is an update to a complaint I posted against Botach Tactical of Los
Angeles, CA on or about 7/14/04. For the sake of reference, my original
complaint can be found at: http://www.complaints.com/directory/2004/july/14/21.htm
Jason UPDATED INFORMATION ABOUT THE CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
*************************** Approximately 7/20/04, I received another call from
BK Botach. He told me that he had begun receiving calls that made him nervous
from agencies like the California AG’s office and the BBB. He asked me what I
was doing because he thought we had resolved all of our outstanding issues. I
reminded him about the $250 check he promised and about how it was not
delivered. I then mentioned that he should not be surprised because I told him
exactly to whom I was complaining and about what. I also told him that no
complaints would be dropped until I was satisfied that our business was
completed, and that would not occur until the check he promised cleared my bank
with no more excuses or delays. He apologized for the misunderstanding and
promised again to send the check. It arrived about a week later and it was
cashed with no problems. At that point I dropped all of my complains about this
issue because Botach Tactical had finally done the right thing. The time and
hassle it took to reach this resolution was extroardinary, but in the end I must
say that they corrected their mistake. As a separate issue, I was informed on
1/4/06 that Botach is attempting to improve their dismal record of customer
service. They have hired a new person specifically tasked with improving
customer relations and they are committed to altering some of their previous
business practices. I wish them the best of luck in this endeavor and I would
like to one day hear that experiences like mine were a thing of the past. The
coming months will be important ones for them and we should all see what
happens. J.B.
July 14, 2004:
Botach Tactical / FN M249 SAW
This complaint is about: Bar Kochba (BK) Botach, Owner Botach Tactical 3423 W.
43rd. Place Los Angeles, CA 90008 Phone: 323-816-0407 E-mail: Email User The
dispute is over treatment I received while attempting to get a refund for a
$2,700 product that was never delivered. I was promised $250 in interest on top
of this amount to cover my time and trouble resolving this matter. It was never
received. The resolution I want is for BK to send me the $250 he promised or go
out of business so that he won’t make false promises to others. IN SUMMARY:
Botach Tactical took my money for an NFA sample that I ordered to demonstrate to
a Government customer. They cashed my check immediately. I was strung along for
about a year with assurances that all was well with my order. Then the contact
stopped. When I call to follow up on my order’s status, I was at first ignored
and then I finally found out that they “lost” my order. When I asked for a
refund, I was given the runaround and asked to talk to ex-employees with no
power to deal with my complaint. When I approached the owner, BK Botach, with
the evidence of the transaction and of his company’s liability, I was
stonewalled and my calls and E-mails were subsequently “Blown-off.” When enough
pressure was finally brought to bear to encourage BK to give me a refund, he
failed to follow through and provide the additional sum that he himself proposed
as a good faith attempt to repair this situation. During the entire episode, he
was difficult to contact and extremely dishonest and disingenuous in virtually
all of his statements to me. In my opinion, BK Botach and his company have a
lousy customer service ethic and no troubling moral problems that prevent them
from lying, cheating and otherwise behaving in an underhanded and questionable
fashion. Even when they are caught, they are not repentant. They give you
evasions, then excuses, then false promises; and once they determine that they
have no outstanding criminal liability with which you can threaten them, you
might as well be dead to them. I believe that dealers of guns (in general) and
machineguns (in specific), should be held to a high standard of ethics, legality
and accountability in how they conduct their business. By these standards, even
Botach’s friends must admit that he is a terrible failure. Following, is a
chronological account of my interactions with Botach Tactical and BK Botach. I
HAVE PHYSICAL COPIES OF ALL DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING CHECKS, ORDERS, LETTERS, NOTES
AND E-MAILS TO SUBSTANTIATE MY CLAIMS. These copies have been presented to BK
Botach as evidence (By whom they were ignored) as well as to all agencies and
entities to which complaints regarding this matter have been referred. Thank you
for your valuable time and attention. Sincerely, Jason B 9190 E. Kayenta Dr.
Tucson, AZ 85749-8647   CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS *************** Early May,
2003: I began to look for a sample Fabrique Nationale (FN) machinegun on behalf
of a New Mexico town marshal’s office. They wished to see a demonstration of
this weapon to evaluate it for possible purchase. I contacted several FN dealers
over the next few weeks to inquire about pricing and availability. Week of
05/19/2003: I contacted Botach Tactical and spoke to Ephraim Diveroli, one of
their sales associates. He quoted me a price on the sample I wanted, plus
proposed a deal whereby I could demo two additional guns to the same department
for no charge, as long as the additional samples were returned when the demo was
complete. This was an attempt for him to generate additional sales for Botach,
who would of course sell the additional guns, if the demonstration was favorably
received. I decided to purchase from Botach Tactical because of their price and
because of the fact that I had ordered from them before (5 Post ’86 Sample Galil
machineguns about 2-3 years earlier) with no problems. Week of 05/26/2003: I
contacted the Town Marshal in New Mexico and explained the process for the
demonstrations. He wrote a Demonstration Request Letter (DRL) and forwarded it
to me. 06/10/2003: I submitted via US Mail a formal order to Botach for the
samples I discussed with Ephraim (As above), along with the DRL and a cashier’s
check in the amount of $2,728.75 as a 50% down payment. The balance would be due
when the order was ready to ship. (UPDATE: Since my payment was sent via US
Mail, some of Botach’s subsequent activities meet the technical definition of
Mail Fraud. This fact was noted and I ultimately filed a complaint with the US
Postal Service.) 06/13/2003: I received an E-mail from Ephraim stating that my
order was received and had been forwarded to FN for fulfillment. 06/16/2003: My
certified check was cashed and deposited to the account of
“BOTACH TACTICAL, a dba
of BARKOCHBA
BOTACH.”
Here there is a long stretch of time where I heard nothing concerning my
order. This was not unexpected as Ephraim told me that FN had a production
backlog and because the NFA paperwork for machineguns always takes a long time.
I did speak to Ephraim once or
twice during this time via telephone regarding other matters, such as current
sales and promotions offered by Botach, etc. Week of 10/06/2003: Ephraim
contacted me via telephone and told me that FN required some additional
documentation in order to process my order. He outlined these requirements and
told me where to send the information. 10/15/2003: I forwarded the additional
documentation and letters that Ephraim requested to Tausha Carter at FNH USA,
Inc., the USA manufacturing subsidiary of FN. Week of 11/10/2003: Ephraim called
me and told me that my order should be ready for shipment in approximately 6-8
weeks. Here several more months pass with no contact and no news at all. Toward
the end of this period, I am becoming increasingly concerned about the status of
my order. 05/2004 – Early 06/2004: I send several E-mails to both BK and
Ephraim, asking for a status on my order. With the utter lack of response, the
tone of my messages eventually shifts from “When will my order ship?” to “I need
a refund ASAP.” None of these messages are returned. (UPDATE: I would later
learn that Ephraim was no longer working for Botach by this time. I was never
contacted or informed of this fact by either BK or Ephraim, despite my many
messages.) 06/15/2004: I sent another E-mail to both Ephraim and BK inquiring
about the status of my order. This time, I attached a copy of my order and my
check to jog their collective memory and speed their response. This E-mail, like
the others, gets no response from either of them. 06/16/2004: I finally managed
to contact BK via telephone. He claimed that my E-mail of 6/15/04 (Which he
apparently read but did not respond to) was the first time he ever heard of my
order and that “Ephraim no longer has an association with [Botach] and he made
all kinds of these deals, so you will have to talk to him.” (Why BK would read
the E-mail, see that there was a problem or misunderstanding of some sort, and
yet never think to call or E-mail me back, even if only to explain the
situation, is completely beyond my understanding.) He then gave me
Ephraim
Diveroli’s new phone number. This
was the first concrete indication I had that there was a serious problem with my
order, and that the very real possibility existed that I would not get the
product or my money. Why I needed to contact Ephraim at this point was unclear
to me, and BK did not adequately explain it. I assumed that he wanted me to
contact Ephraim for some kind of confirmation only, as such a call would
otherwise make no sense: After all, Botach cashed my check, so why would I
expect an ex-employee to issue me a refund or solve my complaint—something which
only Botach could accomplish? I would soon come to believe that this was the
first step in BK trying to shift the blame for the situation, and its subsequent
resolution, onto someone else’s doorstep. Regardless, I contacted Ephraim on the
phone as BK requested. Ephraim was surprised to hear from me. He confirmed that
he no longer worked for Botach and expressed surprise that my order was never
shipped. He also asked why I was calling him about this matter, to which I had
no good reply. I asked Ephraim to contact BK, who he claimed to still be in
contact with regarding some outstanding personal business matters between the
two, to confirm my story so that I could at least get a refund of my deposit.
Ephraim promised to give BK a call that same day. He also told me that BK should
give me a refund with no problems, although he may stall or put the matter off.
To that end, he told me that FN does not bill Botach until a product ships, so I
should not fall for any stories BK might give me about “Needing to wait for a
refund or credit, etc.,” before I could receive my refund. Needless to say, this
implication of less than honest dealing from an ex-employee concerned me
greatly. I was also troubled by Ephraim’s guarded and minimal responses to my
questions about Botach’s status and business practices. (UPDATE:
I later heard from several separate sources, who wished to remain anonymous,
that Ephraim is either BK’s
nephew or cousin and that the business he moved to in Florida, Global Arms Co.,
is a sister company of Botach
Tactical. Allow me to make it very clear that I did not discover this
from either BK or Ephraim, nor have I found as of the time of this writing
anyone knowledgeable enough to corroborate these potentially troubling
statements beyond all doubt. If they are true, I am not sure how this fits into
the ongoing BK vs. Ephraim debate, or to what extent their division has been
used as an excuse to defraud customers. Even if there has been no fraud, it is
not acceptable in my opinion for family disputes to fall over into business,
where customers are hurt.) Immediately after I got off the phone, I followed up
with another E-mail to BK telling him about the call. I also attached another
copy of my order and cashier’s check to this E-mail. There was no response to
this E-mail. 06/17/04: I attempted to contact BK by telephone and left a
message. This message was not returned. 06/21/04: I attempted to contact BK by
telephone and left a message. This message was not returned. I also sent an
E-mail to follow up on the phone message. It was not responded to. 06/25/04: I
attempted to contact BK by telephone and left a message. This message was not
returned. I also sent an E-mail to follow up on the phone message. It was not
responded to. 06/28/04: I again summarized my problems to Botach and requested a
refund of my deposit in a final demand letter that was sent three ways (Faxed,
mailed and E-mailed) to BK. This was done to avoid his habit of saying “I never
got that.” Attached to each of these was a third copy of my order and check and
letters, etc. I also wrote that I was getting tired of my calls not being
returned, and that he had until the end of the week to make good or I would
pursue formal complaints. 06/29/04: In the morning, I get an E-mail from BK
saying that “You are not being ignored.” I responded with an E-mail of my own
that contained a fourth copy of my order and check. This message encouraged him
to finally deal with this matter so I would not have to file any complaints,
which could be a headache to both of us. The fact is not lost on me that he
never tried to contact me until I promised official action. Shortly thereafter,
BK calls me on the telephone. This is the first call I have received from him
during this entire process. He apologized for the mix-up and said again that
Ephraim was responsible and that we would have to contact him. I told him that I
was not interested in pursuing that line of inquiry as it was pointless. He then
said that he did not have enough information to figure out what went wrong with
my purchase, and that I should send him all the information I had. (Note: That
would be the fifth time I sent him the information, which he claims he “Never
got.”) As the evasions and equivocations continued (He told me repeatedly that
he did not know what was going on, and that he never responded to me E-mails
because he was a bad typist, and that he did not return my calls because he was
busy, etc.), I finally had enough and told him “The bottom line is that your
company took my order and your company cashed my check. I can get a copy of the
cancelled check proving that, if you like, but either way, you need to deal with
this problem yourself and quit putting it off on others.” He was silent for a
few seconds and then said, “Yes, get me a copy of that check and then maybe we
can settle this among ourselves.” 06/30/04: I obtain a copy of the cashed
cashier’s check from my bank, Wells Fargo, showing an endorsement and payment to
“PAY TO THE ORDER OF bank leumi USA … FOR DEPOSIT ONLY, BOTACH TACTICAL, A dba
OF BARKOCHBA BOTACH ….” This copy is both E-mailed and faxed to BK, alone with a
cover sheet reminding him that I intend to file official complaints if I do have
a refund by Friday. The fax and E-mail were not responded to. 07/07/2004. I
called BK on the telephone. He said “I am on another line right now and don’t
have your paperwork in front of me. As soon as I finish this call, I’ll call you
right back. I have your number.” No such call was forthcoming up to the
submission of this complaint. 07/07/2004-07/08/2004: After the last exchange, I
am convinced that BK has no real interest in dealing with this issue and I
finally proceed with formal actions. I begin filing official complaints with
government agencies (BATF, USPS, California DOJ and AG, Arizona AG, and the FTC)
as well as other oversight groups, such as the Southern California BBB. I also
begin posting the details of my experience with Botach on several prominent
industry boards. I find out, in response to my posts, that this sort of behavior
is common for him and that his reputation in the industry is very poor. Botach
also has several outstanding complaints against them with the BBB. My posts on
these boards would be continuously updated and my position clarified (To those
friends of BK’s who posted in his defense) as the situation progressed.
07/09/2004: I get a call from BK Botach. This call seems to have been spawned by
a combination of factors: His notice of my postings on the boards from
7/7/04-7/8/04 and the intervention of a sympathetic local party who (Apparently)
had some pull or influence with BK. In that conversation, BK said that after
further reflection, he wanted to do the right thing by me. He said that he was
wrong to deal with the matter as he did, and that he would send me a cashier's
check with a full refund via FedEx to arrive on Monday, 7/12/04. He also said
that he would include an extra check for $250 to cover my trouble and the
"interest" on the unexpected “loan” that my money represented to Botach Tactical
(As I never received any product after one year of them having my money). This
last part was proposed by BK himself, without any urging from me; although I
felt it was perfectly reasonable and should have been expected as part of any
legitimate attempt to make amends for this situation. It finally looked as if an
amicable resolution was in sight. 07/12/2004: I spoke too soon! Monday came
along with the mail from Botach. It did include a check. However, not all was as
promised: First of all, it was just a regular business/personal check, and not
cashier's or certified check (Ironically, the check was drawn on the same
account to which my check had been deposited more than a year earlier—The one BK
claimed not to know anything about). After some of the posts about his rubber
checks on the boards, that fact was not encouraging. Furthermore, in place of
the additional check for the interest, there was a handwritten Post-It Note from
BK saying "Ephraim says he will send you the check for the interest himself."
But BK and Ephraim weren’t talking to one another any more, right? Alarm bells
ring… Whether BK actually contacted Ephraim and actually had his cooperation on
this proposed resolution had to be established. In the mean time, I deposited
this check and hope it clears. (Since it can take up to a month for a check to
be returned NSF, especially from some small “no name” banks, I will have to keep
you all posted on whether it turns into rubber or not.) 07/13/02004: I begin the
day with an E-mail to Ephraim asking him to verify BK’s story. His response was
rapid and unequivocal: [Ephraim wrote] “At this point it does not surprise me
that a cashier’s check was not sent [and] I never offered any sort of interest
to anybody whatsoever with regards to this transaction, WHY WOULD I? Mr. Botach
is obviously playing us and at this point I will resist any attempt to further
involve myself in this transaction.” The subtext was “Too bad you got screwed,
even though I had nothing to do with it. I’m not surprised. Leave me out of it.”
Whether this response is ethical or not under the circumstances (He was the
Botach rep who started this all), it is certainly understandable. Anyway, BK’s
promises of 7/9/04 were meaningless. I asked myself, “What kind of petty shyster
can't even live up to HIS OWN ideas, follow through on HIS OWN suggestions?” No
one asked him for the interest, so why did he go out of his way to propose it if
he never intended to pay it? Is he nuts; deranged? In my opinion, he seems
finally to have caught his hand in the proverbial “Cookie jar” as being a
pathological liar and incapable of straight dealing. After all, he lies even
when there is no longer a point to lying! The only reasonable conclusion is that
he thinks he can repair his reputation with smokescreens and false promises; and
that people will not notice or talk about how his actions differ from his words.
Does he really believe this works? Based on my experience and that of others, I
guess he does. After this (Not entirely unexpected) revelation, I send BK
another E-mail asking him why he pulled this dishonest changeup after we had
supposedly sorted everything out on Friday. I attached a copy of the letter I
received from Ephraim. I also asked him if he had any explanations for this
additional insult before I returned a call from the California DOJ later that
afternoon. BK did try to call me and he left a message, which I could not return
immediately because I was in a meeting. Instead, I sent an E-mail informing him
that I could be reached by E-mail for the remainder of the afternoon and that I
would appreciate a response from him before I called the California DOJ back.
His only response was an E-mail including a photo of his “Oh-so-impressive”
business card with all the verbiage about Botach being a “Law Enforcement
Specialist” (Was this supposed to be intimidation? That would be kind of funny
if you read the opinions that many past Botach LE Customers have about their own
experiences with Botach on the various boards) and the DOJ phone number. The
message from this E-mail was very clear: Screw off. Bring it on. I am sure that
sometime between Friday and 7/13/04, BK made the mental calculation that as long
as his refund check clears; he can probably not be pursued criminally. Once that
fear was gone, I could just piss off. I have not heard from him since. Jason B
Click this link to e-mail the above consumer: //
Missing license forces bride into palimony suit!
A Palimony case which can make history!
By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer DAILY NEWS L.A> CALIF.
Makeup artist to the stars Judith
Boteach
thought she had found true
love when it took four people to carry all of the flowers and jewelry
lavished on her the day multimillionaire
Yoav
Botach
proposed marriage.
Boteach said she learned a month after their Orthodox Jewish wedding
ceremony that her groom hadn't obtained a California marriage license,
but she believed in their future together.
"I loved him," said Boteach. "I trusted him and he kept telling me (the
wedding license) wasn't necessary." (cont.)
(Renaissance Graphic of SHYLOCK and his wife below,)
But their relationship ended unhappily,
with Boteach
kicked out of the
couple's Beverlywood
home in her nightgown. And she is now embroiled in
a court battle for half of
Botach's fortune - millions of
dollars she
claims he promised her should the couple ever split.
"This is the largest palimony case in American history," said Robert W.
Hirsh, Boteach's attorney, who explained that his client cannot fight
for alimony since she and Botach were never legally married.
According to court records, Botach
co-owns 144 commercial and other
properties in Los Angeles, as well as
Botach
Tactical, a nationwide
distributor of police and military equipment. But Boteach is seeking
access to financial documents to determine the defendant's assets.
"We would not be surprised if his net worth is $700 million," Hirsh
said.
But Boteach's lawyer, Richard G. Sherman, argues in court documents that
because his client is a "very wealthy man" he insisted that Boteach sign
a prenuptial agreement before the wedding to protect his assets. And,
Botach maintains, he never promised Boteach anything if they separated.
Sherman also says that it was made clear to Boteach that the couple's
1997 ceremony did not constitute a legal marriage because they did not
obtain blood tests or a marriage license.
"Judy had been married twice before and was well aware of the
requirements of California law in that regard," Sherman wrote. "Prior to
the wedding ceremony, Yoav had a private conversation with the rabbi ...
and Judy.
"In that conversation, Yoav announced that he wanted to make it clear
that their 'marriage' was not legal in California and that they were
going to get 'married' in a religious ceremony only. Judy consented and
the religious ceremony then took place.
"After the religious ceremony,
Yoav
and Judy resided together until
approximately August 2002 when they separated."
Hirsh - a Beverly Hills attorney whose wife's family was helped by Boteach's
family upon coming to the U.S. from Israel more than 25 years ago - said he
filed the suit to help Boteach and other women.
"Mrs. Boteach was the woman behind the man," Hirsh said of his
52-year-old client. "For almost a five-year period, Mrs. Boteach
assisted ... in making a fortune in real estate and, at the same time,
she ran the home. She cooked, cleaned, entertained world leaders and
other dignitaries."
The palimony case is the latest in a string of such suits filed since
the term was coined in 1977 after actor Lee Marvin's companion, Michelle
Triola, won a landmark lawsuit. She argued that based on specific
promises, a cohabitant can have property rights to the assets of another
cohabitant.
One of the largest palimony awards was granted in 199exp4, when an
Orange County jury ordered Mag-Lite flashlight mogul Anthony Maglica to
pay $84 million to Claire Maglica. The two never married but had lived
together for more than 20 years and she had served as executive vice
president of the Ontario-based company.
Boteach's story begins as one of 10 children born to a paint
manufacturer and housewife in Casablanca, Morocco, who moved to Los
Angeles in 1967 to escape religious persecution.
She attended Santa Monica Community College and beauty school. When she
was 17 - with the help of her first husband and her sister and
brother-in-law - she opened a Beverly Hills salon that grew to nearly
three dozen employees and catered to stars including Cher and Tina
Turner, according to Boteach and court records.
Over the next 20 years, Boteach acquired several other businesses,
including two kosher tortilla firms and a cosmetics and perfume company
that sold items through television infomercials in the United States and
France.
Meanwhile, Botach and his brother immigrated from Iran and opened a pawn
shop, according to court documents. In 1973, they began buying, selling
and operating commercial properties, forming Botach Management in 1989.
While their families had long known each other, Boteach said it wasn't
until the mid-1990s that she met her future husband when he began
attending her synagogue.
They hit it off and Botach proposed, Hirsh said, but when he asked her
to sign a prenuptial agreement, she refused and instead traveled to
Australia to visit her sister.
The two eventually reconciled and Hirsh said Botach relented on his
request for a prenuptial agreement. The two set a wedding date, and
Hirsh said Botach informed his bride that he had taken care of all the
arrangements.
An Orthodox Jewish ceremony was held Dec. 25, 1997, Hirsh said.
"She showed up to get married, thinking everything was proper," Hirsh
said. "Then a month later, the subject of a license came up and he told
her, 'We don't need a license. We have an agreement and there is no
license' - that she would get half if they ever separated."
Boteach said she found out they didn't have a marriage license when she was
attempting to change her name on her passport.
In court documents, Boteach says she worked at Botach Management as the
real estate market "rocketed up," although she received no compensation.
And she alleges that Botach "severely beat" her on several occasions
after she refused to sign a post-nuptial agreement.
Boteach said she never reported the alleged abuse to the police because
she was "ashamed, scared and didn't know what to do."
Boteach filed for divorce, asking a judge to recognize that the couple
had a civil marriage.
But Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu found that the couple was not
legally married and could not be granted a divorce. Hirsh said the judge
suggested Boteach pursue a palimony suit.
In her palimony case, Boteach says the couple cohabitated from the
wedding ceremony until August 2002, when she was kicked out of their
Beverlywood home in her nightgown after refusing to sign a post-nuptial
agreement.
In a court declaration, however, Botach said he never made a deal with
Boteach or promised her any portion of his fortune.
"At no time, ever, did I ever enter any 'oral cohabitation agreement'
with (Boteach), and all the allegations to the contrary are a sham,"
Botach wrote.
Hirsh said he expects another hearing in the case in the next two
months.
"She was blinded by love," Hirsh said of his client.
REPORTER: Troy Anderson, (213) 974-8985
troy.anderson@dailynews.com
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV
BOTACH
Born 1932 More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current Phone
Numbers Found
8927 SAWYER ST Satellite Photo &
Map Recorded: Unknown Check White Pages Check Yellow Pages Check Criminal
Records
LOS ANGELES, CA 90035 Check messages for yoav botach Leave a message Search by
SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV
BOTACH Born 1932 More Info
about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current Phone Numbers Found
3423 43RD PL Satellite Photo &
Map Recorded: 08/14/2002 Check White Pages Check Yellow Pages Check Criminal
Records
LOS ANGELES, CA 90008 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV BOTACH More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current Phone Numbers
Found
1057 MUIR AVE Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: 04/15/2001 Check White Pages Check
Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
POMONA, CA 91766 Check messages for yoav botach Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
Y BOTACH - 9 Free Listings
Leave a message for Check messages E-mail This Page ZabaAlert
Check messages for: - - yoav botach Check PeopleData
YOAV BOTACH More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current Phone Numbers
Found
703 HANKS ST Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: 11/17/1999 Check White Pages Check
Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
AZUSA, CA 91702 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV BOTACH More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current Phone Numbers
Found
1228 BEDFORD ST Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: Unknown Check White Pages Check
Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
LOS ANGELES, CA 90035 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV BOTACH More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current Phone Numbers
Found
13513 BAYLISS RD Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: Unknown Check White Pages Check
Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
LOS ANGELES, CA 90049 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV BOTACH Born Sep 1948 More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current
Phone Numbers Found
1901 PREUSS RD Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: 03/12/2002 Check White Pages
Check Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
LOS ANGELES, CA 90034 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV BOTACH Born 1946 More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current
Phone Numbers Found
1920 10TH AVE Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: Unknown Check White Pages Check
Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
LOS ANGELES, CA 90018 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV BOTACH Born 1932 More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current
Phone Numbers Found
5011 PICO BLVD Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: 10/05/2004 Check White Pages
Check Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
LOS ANGELES, CA 90019 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV BOTACH Born 1932 More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current
Phone Numbers Found
8927 SAWYER ST Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: Unknown Check White Pages Check
Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
LOS ANGELES, CA 90035 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
YOAV BOTACH More Info about YOAV BOTACH Block This Record Current Phone Numbers
Found
1057 MUIR AVE Satellite Photo & Map Recorded: 04/15/2001 Check White Pages Check
Yellow Pages Check Criminal Records
POMONA, CA 91766 Check messages for Leave a message Search by SS#
Google Yoav Botach YOAV BOTACH Detailed Background Report Check for more YOAV
BOTACH Listings
I Think I’m Going For a Defense Contract
Posted by fredtopeka on March 27, 2008
If the guy in this story (via TPM) can get so many contracts, I should be able
to. Really, look at:
Michael Diveroli, Efraim’s father, had incorporated the company in 1999, when
Efraim was 13. For several years, a period when the company appeared to have
limited activity, Michael Diveroli, who now operates a police supply company
down the street from AEY’s office, was listed as the company’s sole executive.
In 2004, AEY listed Efraim Diveroli, then 18, as an officer with a 1 percent
ownership stake.
The younger
Diveroli’s
munitions experience appeared to be limited to a short-lived job in Los Angeles
for Botach
Tactical, a military and police supply company owned by his uncle, Bar-Kochba
Botach.
Efraim was president and 19 (and has had problems with the law) when the company
got its first Defense department contract. Let’s see how it’s worked out:
With the award last January of a federal
contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company,
AEY
Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main
supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.
Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old
and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by
The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials.
Much of the ammunition comes from the
aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the
State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and
have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed.
In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a
shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms
trafficking.
Moreover, tens of millions of the rifle and machine-gun cartridges were
manufactured in China, making their procurement a possible violation of American
law. The company’s president, Efraim E. Diveroli, was also secretly recorded in
a conversation that suggested corruption in his company’s purchase of more than
100 million aging rounds in Albania, according to audio files of the
conversation.
MISSING LICENSE FORCES BRIDE INTO PALIMONY SUIT.
Ads by GoogleThai Dating And Singles
Meet Sexy Thai Singles Now! 284,000 Members. Join 100% Free.
www.ThaiLoveLinks.com
Free Marriage Records?
Obtain Free Marriage Records On Anyone. Takes Less Than One Minute!
FreeDivorceMarriageRecords.com
CA Marriage License Serv.
Issued in Notary's Office Torrance No Waiting -Los Angeles County ML
www.instantlywed.com
Link to this page
<a href="http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:tk9DU6QXyEkJ:www.thefreelibrary.com/MISSING%2BLICENSE%2BFORCES%2BBRIDE%2BINTO%2BPALIMONY%2BSUIT-a0142071737+Yoav+Botach+israeli&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us">MISSING
LICENSE FORCES BRIDE INTO PALIMONY SUIT.</a>
Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer
Makeup artist to the stars Judith Boteach thought she had found true love when
it took four people to carry all of the flowers and jewelry lavished on her the
day multimillionaire Yoav Botach proposed marriage.
Boteach said she learned a month after their Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony
that her groom hadn't obtained a California marriage license, but she believed
in their future together.
``I loved him,'' said Boteach. ``I trusted him and he kept telling me (the
wedding license) wasn't necessary.''
But their relationship ended unhappily,
with Boteach
kicked out of the couple's
Beverlywood home in her
nightgown. And she is now embroiled in a court battle for half of
Botach's
fortune - millions of dollars she claims he promised her should the couple ever
split.
``This is the largest palimony palimony n. a substitute for alimony in cases in
which the couple were not married but lived together for a long period and then
terminated their relationship. The key issue is whether there was an agreement
that one partner would support the other in return for the second making a home
and performing other domestic duties beyond sexual pleasures. case in American
history,'' said Robert W. Hirsh, Boteach's attorney, who explained that his
client cannot fight for alimony since she and Botach were never legally married.
According to court records, Botach
co-owns 144 commercial and other properties in Los Angeles, as well as
Botach
Tactical, a nationwide distributor of police and military equipment. But
Boteach is seeking access to financial documents to determine the defendant's
assets.
``We would not be surprised if his net worth is $700 million,'' Hirsh said.
But Botach's lawyer, Richard G. Sherman, argues in court documents that because
his client is a ``very wealthy man'' he insisted that Boteach sign a prenuptial
agreement prenuptial agreement (antenuptial agreement) n. a written contract
between two people who are about to marry, setting out the terms of possession
of assets, treatment of future earnings, control of the property of each, and
potential division if the marriage is later dissolved. before the wedding to
protect his assets. And, Botach maintains, he never promised Boteach anything if
they separated.
Sherman also says that it was made clear to Boteach that the couple's 1997
ceremony did not constitute a legal marriage because they did not obtain blood
tests or a marriage license.
``Judy had been married twice before and was well aware of the requirements of
California law in that regard,'' Sherman wrote. ``Prior to the wedding ceremony,
Yoav had a private conversation with the rabbi ... and Judy.
``In that conversation,
Yoav
announced that he wanted to make it clear that their 'marriage' was not legal in
California and that they were going to get 'married' in a religious ceremony
only. Judy consented and the religious ceremony then took place.
``After the religious ceremony, Yoav and Judy resided together until
approximately August 2002 when they separated.''
Israeli?
Hirsh - a Beverly Hills attorney whose wife's family was helped by
Boteach's
family upon coming to the U.S. from Israel more than 25 years ago - said
he filed the suit to help Boteach and other women.
``Mrs. Boteach was the woman behind the man,'' Hirsh said of
his 52-year-old client. ``For almost a five-year period, Mrs. Boteach
assisted ... in making a fortune in real estate and, at the same time, she ran
the home. She cooked, cleaned, entertained world leaders and other
dignitaries.''
The palimony case is the latest in a string of such suits filed since the term
was coined in 1977 after actor Lee Marvin's companion, Michelle Triola, won a
landmark lawsuit. She argued that based on specific promises, a cohabitant can
have property rights to the assets of another cohabitant.
One of the largest palimony awards was granted in 1994, when an Orange County
jury ordered Mag-Lite flashlight mogul Anthony Maglica to pay $84 million to
Claire Maglica. The two never married but had lived together for more than 20
years and she had served as executive vice president of the Ontario-based
company.
Boteach's story begins as one of 10 children born to a paint manufacturer and
housewife in Casablanca, Morocco, who moved to Los Angeles in 1967 to escape
religious persecution.
She attended Santa Monica Community College and beauty school. When she was 17 -
with the help of her first husband and her sister and brother-in-law - she
opened a Beverly Hills salon that grew to nearly three dozen employees and
catered to stars including Cher and Tina Turner, according to Boteach and court
records.
Over the next 20 years, Boteach acquired several other businesses, including two
kosher tortilla firms and a cosmetics and perfume company that sold items
through television infomercials in the United States and France.
Iranian_jew
Meanwhile,
Botach
and his brother immigrated from Iran and opened a pawn shop, according to court
documents. In 1973, they began buying, selling and operating commercial
properties, forming Botach
Management in 1989.
While their families had long known each other, Boteach said it wasn't until the
mid-1990s that she met her future husband when he began attending her synagogue.
They hit it off and Botach proposed, Hirsh said, but when he asked her to sign a
prenuptial agreement, she refused and instead traveled to Australia to visit her
sister.
The two eventually reconciled and Hirsh said Botach relented on his request for
a prenuptial agreement. The two set a wedding date, and Hirsh said Botach
informed his bride that he had taken care of all the arrangements.
An Orthodox Jewish ceremony was held Dec. 25, 1997, Hirsh said.
``She showed up to get married, thinking everything was proper,'' Hirsh said.
``Then a month later, the subject of a license came up and he told her, 'We
don't need a license. We have an agreement and there is no license' - that she
would get half if they ever separated.''
Boteach said she found out they didn't have a marriage license when she was
attempting to change her name on her passport.
Jew_beats_her
In court documents,
Boteach
says she worked at Botach
Management as the real estate market ``rocketed up,'' although she received no
compensation. And she alleges that
Botach
``severely beat'' her on several occasions after she refused to sign a
post-nuptial agreement.
Boteach said she never reported the alleged abuse to the police because she was
``ashamed, scared and didn't know what to do.''
Boteach filed for divorce, asking a judge to recognize that the couple had a
civil marriage.
But Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu found that the couple was not legally
married and could not be granted a divorce. Hirsh said the judge suggested
Boteach pursue a palimony suit.
In her palimony case, Boteach says the couple cohabitated from the wedding
ceremony until August 2002, when she was kicked out of their Beverlywood home in
her nightgown after refusing to sign a post-nuptial agreement.
In a court declaration, however, Botach said he never made a deal with Boteach
or promised her any portion of his fortune.
``At no time, ever, did I ever enter any 'oral cohabitation agreement' with (Boteach),
and all the allegations to the contrary are a sham,'' Botach wrote.
Hirsh said he expects another hearing in the case in the next two months.
``She was blinded by love,'' Hirsh said of his client.
Troy Anderson, (213) 974-8985
troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com
AFGHANISTAN: Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans
by C. J. CHIVERS, The New York Times
March 27th, 2008
This article was reported by C. J. Chivers, Eric Schmitt and Nicholas Wood and
written by Mr. Chivers.
Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan
government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the
war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American
military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a
22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.
With the award last January of a federal
contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company,
AEY
Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main
supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.
Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old
and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by
The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of
the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc,
including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be
unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed.
In purchasing munitions, the contractor
has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities
suspected of illegal arms trafficking.
Moreover, tens of millions of the rifle and machine-gun cartridges were
manufactured in China, making their procurement a possible violation of American
law. The company’s president,
Efraim
E. Diveroli,
was also secretly recorded in a conversation that suggested corruption in his
company’s purchase of more than 100 million aging rounds in Albania, according
to audio files of the conversation.
This week, after repeated inquiries about AEY’s performance by The Times, the
Army suspended the company from any future federal contracting, citing shipments
of Chinese ammunition and claiming that Mr. Diveroli misled the Army by saying
the munitions were Hungarian.
Mr. Diveroli, reached by telephone, said he was unaware of the action. The Army
planned to notify his company by certified mail on Thursday, according to
internal correspondence provided by a military official.
But problems with the ammunition were evident last fall in places like Nawa,
Afghanistan, an outpost near the Pakistani border, where an Afghan lieutenant
colonel surveyed the rifle cartridges on his police station’s dirty floor. Soon
after arriving there, the cardboard boxes had split open and their contents
spilled out, revealing ammunition manufactured in China in 1966.
“This is what they give us for the fighting,” said the colonel, Amanuddin, who
like many Afghans has only one name. “It makes us worried, because too much of
it is junk.” Ammunition as it ages over decades often becomes less powerful,
reliable and accurate.
AEY is one of many previously unknown defense companies to have thrived since
2003, when the Pentagon began dispensing billions of dollars to train and equip
indigenous forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its rise from obscurity once seemed
to make it a successful example of the Bush administration’s promotion of
private contractors as integral elements of war-fighting strategy.
But an examination of AEY’s background, through interviews in several countries,
reviews of confidential government documents and the examination of some of the
ammunition, suggests that Army contracting officials, under pressure to arm
Afghan troops, allowed an immature company to enter the murky world of
international arms dealing on the Pentagon’s behalf — and did so with minimal
vetting and through a vaguely written contract with few restrictions.
In addition to this week’s suspension, AEY is under investigation by the
Department of Defense’s inspector general and by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, prompted by complaints about the quality and origins of ammunition
it provided, and allegations of corruption.
Mr. Diveroli, in a brief telephone interview late last year, denied any
wrongdoing. “I know that my company does everything 100 percent on the up and
up, and that’s all I’m concerned about,” he said.
He also suggested that his activities should be shielded from public view. “AEY
is working on a moderately classified Department of Defense project,” he said.
“I really don’t want to talk about the details.”
He referred questions to a lawyer, Hy Shapiro, who offered a single statement by
e-mail. “While AEY continues to work very hard to fulfill its obligations under
its contract with the U.S. Army, its representatives are not prepared at this
time to sit and discuss the details,” he wrote.
As part of the suspension, neither Mr. Diveroli nor his company can bid on any
further federal work until the Army’s allegations are resolved. But he will be
allowed to provide ammunition already on order under the Afghan contract,
according to internal military correspondence.
In January, American officers in Kabul, concerned about munitions from AEY, had
contacted the Army’s Rock Island Arsenal, in Illinois, and raised the
possibility of terminating the contract. And officials at the Army Sustainment
Command, the contracting authority at the arsenal, after meeting with AEY in
late February, said they were tightening the packaging standards for munitions
shipped to the war.
And yet after that meeting, AEY sent another shipment of nearly one million
cartridges to Afghanistan that the Combined Security Transition
Command-Afghanistan regarded as substandard. Lt. Col. David G. Johnson, the
command spokesman, said that while there were no reports of ammunition
misfiring, some of it was in such poor condition that the military had decided
not to issue it. “Our honest answer is that the ammunition is of a quality that
is less than desirable; the munitions do not appear to meet the standards that
many of us are used to,” Colonel Johnson said. “We are not pleased with the way
it was delivered.”
Several officials said the problems would have been avoided if the Army had
written contracts and examined bidders more carefully.
Public records show that AEY’s contracts since 2004 have potentially been worth
more than a third of a billion dollars. Mr. Diveroli set the value higher: he
claimed to do $200 million in business each year.
Several military officers and government officials, speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the investigations, questioned how Mr. Diveroli, and a
small group of men principally in their 20s and without extensive military or
procurement experiences, landed so much vital government work.
“A lot of us are asking the question,” said a senior State Department official.
“How did this guy get all this business?”
An Ambitious Company
The intensity of the Afghan insurgency alarmed the Pentagon in 2006, and the
American unit that trains and equips Afghan forces placed a huge munitions order
through an Army logistics command.
The order sought 52 types of ammunition: rifle, pistol and machine-gun
cartridges, hand grenades, rockets, shotgun slugs, mortar rounds, tank
ammunition and more. In all, it covered hundreds of millions of rounds. Afghan
forces primarily use weapons developed in the Soviet Union. This meant that most
munitions on the list could be bought only overseas.
AEY was one of 10 companies to bid by the September 2006 deadline.
Michael Diveroli, Efraim’s father, had incorporated the company in 1999, when
Efraim was 13. For several years, a period when the company appeared to have
limited activity, Michael Diveroli, who now operates a police supply company
down the street from AEY’s office, was listed as the company’s sole executive.
In 2004, AEY listed Efraim Diveroli, then 18, as an officer with a 1 percent
ownership stake.
The younger Diveroli’s munitions experience appeared to be limited to a
short-lived job in Los Angeles for Botach Tactical, a military and police supply
company owned by his uncle, Bar-Kochba Botach.
Mr. Diveroli cut off an interview when asked about Botach Tactical. Mr. Botach,
reached by telephone, said that both Michael and Efraim Diveroli had briefly
worked for him, but that after seeing the rush of federal contracts available
after the wars began, they had struck out on their own.
“They just left me and took my customer base with them,” he said. “They
basically said: ‘Why should we work for Botach? Let’s do it on our own.’ ”
As Efraim Diveroli arrived in Miami Beach, AEY was transforming itself by
aggressively seeking security-related contracts.
It won a $126,000 award for ammunition for the Special Forces; AEY also provided
ammunition or equipment in 2004 to the Department of Energy, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and the State
Department.
By 2005, when Mr. Diveroli became AEY’s president at age 19, the company was
bidding across a spectrum of government agencies and providing paramilitary
equipment — weapons, helmets, ballistic vests, bomb suits, batteries and
chargers for X-ray machines — for American aid to Pakistan, Bolivia and
elsewhere.
It was also providing supplies to the American military in Iraq, where its
business included a $5.7 million contract for rifles for Iraqi forces.
Two federal officials involved in contracting in Baghdad said AEY quickly
developed a bad reputation. “They weren’t reliable, or if they did come through,
they did after many excuses,” said one of them, who asked that his name be
withheld because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
By this time, pressures were emerging in Efraim Diveroli’s life. In November
2005, a young woman sought an order of protection from him in the domestic
violence division of Dade County Circuit Court.
The woman eventually did not appear in court, and her allegations were never
ruled on. But in court papers, the woman said that after her relationship with
Mr. Diveroli ended, he stalked her and left threatening messages.
Once, according to the file, his behavior included “shoving her to the ground
and refusing to allow her to leave during a verbal dispute.” Other times, she
reported, Mr. Diveroli arrived at her home unannounced and intoxicated “going
about the exterior, banging on windows and doors.”
The woman worried that she could not ignore him, court records said, because his
behavior frightened her.
Mr. Diveroli sought court delays on national security grounds. “I am the
President and only official employee of my business,” he wrote to the judge on
Dec. 8, 2005. “My business is currently of great importance to the country as I
am licensed Defense Contractor to the United States Government in the fight
against terrorism in Iraq and I am doing my very best to provide our troops with
all their equipment needs on pending critical contracts.”
As AEY’s bid for its largest government contract was being considered, Mr.
Diveroli’s personal difficulties continued. On Nov. 26, 2006, the Miami Beach
police were called to his condominium during an argument between him and another
girlfriend. According to the police report, he had thrown her “clothes out in
the hallway and told her to get out.”
A witness told the police Mr. Diveroli had dragged her back into the apartment.
The police found the woman crying; she said she had not been dragged. Mr.
Diveroli was not charged.
On Dec. 21, 2006, the police were called back to the condominium. Mr. Diveroli
and AEY’s vice president, David M. Packouz, had just been in a fight with the
valet parking attendant.
The fight began, the police said, after the attendant refused to give Mr.
Diveroli his keys and Mr. Diveroli entered the garage to get them himself. A
witness said Mr. Diveroli and Mr. Packouz both beat the man; police photographs
showed bruises and scrapes on his face and back.
When the police searched Mr. Diveroli, they found he had a forged driver’s
license that added four years to his age and made him appear old enough to buy
alcohol as a minor. His birthday had been the day before.
“I don’t even need that any more,” he told the police, the report said. “I’m 21
years old.”
Mr. Diveroli was charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor, and felony
possession of a stolen or forged document.
The second charge placed his business in jeopardy. Mr. Diveroli had a federal
firearms license, which was required for his work. With a felony conviction, the
license would be nullified.
(Mr. Packouz was charged with battery and the charge was later dropped; he
declined to be interviewed. To avoid a conviction on his record, Mr. Diveroli
entered a six-month diversion program for first offenders in May 2007 that
spared him from standing trial.)
A relative paid Mr. Diveroli’s $1,000 bail as his bid for the Afghan contract
was in its final review.
To be accepted, the company had to be, in Army parlance, “a responsible
contractor,” which required an examination of its financial soundness, transport
capabilities, past performance and compliance with the law and government
contracting regulations.
The week after a relative paid his bail, the Banc of America Investment Services
in Miami provided Mr. Diveroli a letter certifying that his company had cash on
hand to begin buying munitions on a large scale. It said AEY had $5,469,668.95
in an account.
AEY was awarded the contract in January 2007. Asked why it chose AEY, the Army
Sustainment Command answered in writing: “AEY’s proposal represented the best
value to the government.”
Eastern Bloc Arsenals
Both the Army and AEY have treated the sources of the ammunition the company
purchases as confidential matters, declining to say how and where the company
obtained it, the prices paid or the quantities delivered.
But records provided by an official
concerned about the company’s performance, a whistle-blower in the Balkans and
an arms-trafficking researcher in Europe, as well as interviews with several
people who work in state arsenals in Europe, show that
AEY
shopped from stocks in the old Eastern bloc, including Albania, Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Romania and Slovakia.
These stockpiles range from temperature-controlled bunkers to unheated
warehouses packed with exposed, decaying ammunition. Some arsenals contain
ammunition regarded in munitions circles as high quality. Others are scrap heaps
of abandoned Soviet arms.
The Army’s contract did little to distinguish between the two.
When the United States or NATO buys munitions for themselves, the process is
regulated by quality-assurance standards that cover manufacturing, packaging,
storage, testing and transport.
The standards exist in part because munitions are perishable. As they age,
propellants and explosives degrade, and casings are susceptible to weathering.
Environmental conditions — humidity, vibration, temperature shifts — accelerate
decay, making munitions less reliable.
NATO rules require ammunition to be tested methodically over its life; samples
are fired through braced weapons, and muzzle velocities and accuracy are
recorded.
For rifle cartridges, testing begins at age 10 years, according to Peter
Courtney-Green, chief of the Ammunition Support Office of NATO’s Maintenance and
Supply Agency.
The Soviet Union, which designed the ammunition that AEY bought, developed
similar tests, which are still in use. But when the Army wrote its Afghan
contract, it did not enforce either NATO or Russian standards. It told bidders
only that the munitions must be “serviceable and issuable to all units without
qualification.”
What this meant was not defined. An official at the Army Sustainment Command
said that because the ammunition was for foreign weapons, and considered
“nonstandard,” it only had to fit in weapons it was intended for.
“There is no specific testing request, and there is no age limit,” said Michael
Hutchison, the command’s deputy director for acquisition. “As the ammunition is
not standard to the U.S. inventory, the Army doesn’t possess packaging or
quality standards for that ammo.”
When purchasing such munitions, Mr. Hutchison said, the Army Sustainment Command
relies on standards from the “customer” — meaning the Army units in Afghanistan.
And the customer, he said, did not set age or testing requirements.
With the vague standards in hand, AEY canvassed the field. One stop was Albania,
a fortress state during Soviet times now trying to join NATO. Albania has huge
stocks of armaments, much if it provided by China in the 1960s and 1970s.
The quality of these stockpiles vary widely, said William D. G. Hunt, a retired
British ammunition technical officer who assessed the entire stock for Albania’s
Ministry of Defense from 1998 to 2002. He said a military planning to use the
munitions had reason to worry: at least 90 percent of the stockpile was more
than 40 years old.
“If there was any procurement made for combat purposes from that stockpile, I
would be very dubious about it,” he said. “I am not suggesting that all the
ammunition would fail. But its performance would tail off rather dramatically.
It is substandard, for sure.”
Problems with Albania’s decaying munitions were apparent earlier this month,
when a depot outside Tirana, Albania’s capital, erupted in a chain of
explosions, killing at least 22 people, injuring at least 300 others and
destroying hundreds of homes.
Before the Army’s contractors began shopping from such depots, the West’s
assessment of Albanian munitions was evident in programs it sponsored to destroy
them. Through 2007, the United States had contributed $2 million to destroy
excess small-caliber weapons and 2,000 tons of ammunition in Albania, according
to the State Department.
A NATO program that ended last year involved 16 Western nations contributing
about $10 million to destroy 8,700 tons of obsolete ammunition. The United
States contributed $500,000. Among the items destroyed were 104 million 7.62
millimeter cartridges — exactly the ammunition AEY sought from the Albanian
state arms export agency.
Albania offered to sell tens of millions of cartridges manufactured as long ago
as 1950. For tests, a 25-year-old AEY representative was given 1,000 cartridges
to fire, according to Ylli Pinari, the director of the arms export agency at the
time of the sale.
No ballistic performance was recorded, he said. The rounds were fired by hand.
On that basis, AEY bought more than 100 million cartridges for the Pentagon’s
order. The cartridges, according to packing lists, dated to the 1960s.
The company also hired a local
businessman, Kosta
Trebicka,
to remove the ammunition from its wooden crates and hermetically sealed metal
boxes — the standard military packaging that protects munitions from moisture
and dirt, and helps ensure its reliability and ease of transport in the field.
Mr. Trebicka,
in interviews, said Mr. Diveroli
wanted to discard the crates and metal boxes to reduce the weight and cost of
air shipments and maximize profits. Several American officials said they
suspected that the packaging was removed because it bore Chinese markings and
the ammunition’s age.
The Czech Connection
As the cartridges in Albania were being prepared for shipment to Afghanistan,
Mr. Diveroli began seeking ammunition from the Czech Republic to fill an order
for Iraq’s Interior Ministry.
In May 2007, according to two American officials, the Czech government contacted
the American Embassy in Prague with a concern: AEY was buying nine million
cartridges through Petr Bernatik, a Czech citizen who had been accused by Czech
officials of illegal arms trafficking.
The accusations included shipments of rocket-propelled grenades in violation of
an international embargo to Congo, and illegal shipments of firearms to
Slovakia.
Mr. Bernatik had publicly denied both accusations. But they were deemed credible
enough in Washington that he was listed on the Defense Trade Controls watch
list, according to one of the American officials.
This list, maintained by the State Department, is used to prevent American
dealers from engaging suspicious traders in their business, in part to prevent
legal arms companies from enriching or legitimizing black-market networks.
AEY has never been implicated in black-market sales. But the Czech government,
which had discretion over the sale, asked the American Embassy if it wanted Mr.
Bernatik involved in AEY’s deals, according to the two American officials, who
requested anonymity because they were not authorized to share the contents of
diplomatic discussions.
The United States did not try to block the transaction, one of the American
officials said, in part because equipping Iraq was in the United States’
interest, and also because Mr. Bernatik had been accused, not convicted.
On May 7, 2007, the Czech government issued an export license. Mr. Bernatik, in
a telephone interview, said he arranged seven flights to Iraq for AEY last year.
“We have a normal business collaboration,” he said.
A Mysterious Middleman
The international arms business operates partly in the light and partly in
shadows, and is littered with short-lived shell companies, middlemen and
official corruption. Governments have tried to regulate it more closely for
years, with limited success.
As Mr. Diveroli began to fill the Army’s huge orders, he was entering a shadowy
world, and in his brief interview he suggested that he was aware that corruption
could intrude on his dealings in Albania. “What goes on in the Albanian Ministry
of Defense?” he said. “Who’s clean? Who’s dirty? Don’t want to know about it.”
The way AEY’s business was structured, Mr. Diveroli, at least officially, did
not deal directly with Albanian officials. Instead, a middleman company
registered in Cyprus, Evdin Ltd., bought the ammunition and sold it to his
company.
The local packager involved in the deal, Mr. Trebicka, said that he suspected
that Evdin’s purpose was to divert money to Albanian officials.
The purchases, Mr. Trebicka said, were a flip: Albania sold ammunition to Evdin
for $22 per 1,000 rounds, he said, and Evdin sold it to AEY for much more. The
difference, he said he suspected, was shared with Albanian officials, including
Mr. Pinari, then the head of the arms export agency, and the defense minister at
the time, Fatmir Mediu.
(Mr. Mediu resigned last week after the ammunition depot explosions; Mr. Pinari
was arrested.) The Albanian government has been infuriated by Mr. Trebicka’s
allegations. Sali Berisha, the prime minister, Mr. Mediu and Mr. Pinari all
denied involvement in kickbacks. But Mr. Trebicka said that after he raised his
concerns about Evdin with the Defense Ministry, his company was forced from the
repackaging contract.
On June 11, 2007, Mr. Trebicka and Mr. Diveroli commiserated by phone about
problems with doing business in Albania. Mr. Trebicka surreptitiously recorded
the conversation, and later gave the audio files to American investigators.
The conversation, he said, showed that the American company was aware of
corruption in its dealings in Albania and that Heinrich Thomet, a Swiss arms
dealer, was behind Evdin.
In the recordings, which Mr. Trebicka shared with The Times, Mr. Diveroli
suggests that Mr. Thomet, called “Henri,” was acting as the middleman.
“Pinari needs a guy like Henri in the middle to take care of him and his
buddies, which is none of my business,” Mr. Diveroli said. “I don’t want to know
about that business. I want to know about legitimate businesses.”
Mr. Diveroli recommended that Mr. Trebicka try to reclaim his contract by
sending “one of his girls” to have sex with Mr. Pinari. He suggested that money
might help, too.
“Let’s get him happy; maybe he gives you one more chance,” he said. “If he gets
$20,000 from you ... ”
At the end, Mr. Diveroli appeared to lament his business with Albania. “It went
up higher to the prime minister and his son,” he said. “I can’t fight this
mafia. It got too big. The animals just got too out of control.”
In e-mail exchanges, Mr. Thomet denied an official role in Evdin. His
involvement in the Albania deal, he said, had been in introducing Mr. Diveroli
to potential partners and officials. Bogdan Choopryna, Evdin’s general manager,
also said Mr. Diveroli’s allegations were not true. “We listen to the words of
Mr. Diveroli, and then I am responsible for what he is saying?” he said. In
addition to being an official with Evdin, Mr. Choopryna, 27, markets products
for a Swiss company run by Mr. Thomet.
The dispute about
Evdin’s
role and who owns it remains publicly unresolved.
Evdin
had incorporated on Sept. 26, 2006 — the week after Mr.
Diveroli
bid on the Afghan contract, according to Cyprus’s registrar. The company listed
its office in Larnaca,
Cyprus, and its general director as
Pambos
Fellas.
A visit by a reporter to the address found an accounting business above a
nightclub. Evdin had no office or staff there. And Mr. Fellas, who was inside,
said that he was not Evdin’s general director, but “a nominee director” whose
sole role was to register the company.
He had registered hundreds of such companies for a fee, he said, and knew
nothing of Evdin’s business.
Some signs point back to Switzerland. Mr. Pinari initially told two reporters
that he worked with Evdin via Mr. Thomet. (After a reporter told Mr. Thomet
this, Mr. Pinari changed his story, referring the reporter to Mr. Fellas and
Evdin’s office in Cyprus.) Mr. Diveroli also said the Cyprus company was run by
a “Swiss individual.”
Mr.
Thomet
has been accused in the past by private groups, including Amnesty International,
of arranging illegal arms transfers under a shifting portfolio of corporate
names. His activities have also caused concern in Washington, where, like Mr.
Bernatik,
he and Evdin
are on the Defense Trade Controls watch list, an American official said.
Mr. Thomet said past claims that he had engaged in illegal arms trading were
caused by “false statements by former competitors.”
Hugh Griffiths, operations manager of the Arms Transfer Profile Initiative, a
private organization that researches illicit arms transfers, described Mr.
Thomet as a broker with contacts in former Eastern bloc countries with
stockpiles and arms factories. His proximity to AEY’s purchases, Mr. Griffiths
said, raised questions about whether the Pentagon was adequately vetting the
business done in its name.
“Put very simply, many of the people involved in smuggling arms to Africa are
also exactly the same as those involved in Pentagon-supported deals, like AEY’s
shipments to Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.
Under the suspension ordered Wednesday, the Army planned to continue accepting
ammunition it had already ordered from AEY. As of March 21, it had ordered $155
million of munitions, according to the Army Sustainment Command.
In Afghanistan, American munitions officers are examining all of the small-arms
ammunition AEY has shipped. The final shipment, which arrived in wooden crates,
included loose and corroded cartridges, according to three officers. At Rock
Island Arsenal, the contracting authority said it was cooperating with
investigators, who have also visited Albania and Afghanistan.
And in Miami Beach, even before the
suspension, AEY
had lost staff members. Michael
Diveroli, the company’s founder,
told a reporter that he no longer had any relationship with the company. Mr.
Packouz,
who was AEY’s
vice president, and Levi Meyer, 25, who was briefly listed as general manager,
had left the company, too.
Mr. Meyer offered a statement: “I’m not involved in that mess anymore.”
C. J Chivers reported from Nawa, Afghanistan, Russia and Ukraine; Eric Schmitt
from Washington and Miami Beach; and Nicholas Wood from Tirana, Albania.
Reporting was contributed by Alain Delaquéričre and Margot Williams from New
York, James Glanz from Baghdad, and Stefanos Evripidou from Cyprus.
|
HomeU.S.BusinessWorldEntertainmentSportsTechPoliticsElectionsScienceHealthMost
Popular
Secondary Navigation
Business Video U.S. Economy Stock Markets Earnings Opinion Personal Finance
Press Releases Search: All News Yahoo! News Only News Photos Video/Audio
Advanced
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US Army suspends suspect Afghan munitions deal
by Jim Mannion Thu Mar 27, 4:58 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A defense contractor reportedly led by a 22-year-old has been
suspended from doing business with the US government for allegedly supplying
Afghan security forces with old Chinese-made munitions in violation of its
contract and US law, officials said Thursday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Until an investigation has been completed, AEY Inc. and its president Efraim
Diveroli, have been suspended from future contracting with any US government
agency, according to officials and army documents obtained by AFP.
chinese_ammo
Diveroli
was notified in a letter March 25 that he had been suspended because he provided
certificates declaring the ammunition was made in Hungary, "when in fact the
majority of the ammunition was manufactured in the People's Republic of China
between 1962 and 1974," according to the document.
Using Chinese-made ammunition violated the terms of the contract, the notice of
suspension said. Army officials said it also violated a US law that prohibits
arms purchases from China.
In January, investigators inspected munitions stored at a bunker in Afghanistan
and found that 14 of 15 containers of 7.62-caliber ammunition supplied by AEY
Inc. were manufactured in China, the army memo said.
The army's Criminal Investigation Division is conducting an investigation into
procurement fraud, an army official said.
The army memorandum, which was prepared by its legal services agency, said
making false or misleading statements was punishable by fines or up to five
years in prison.
Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of
a House committee that oversees government contracting, scheduled a hearing into
the matter for mid-April.
The New York Times, which first disclosed the problems with the contract, said
AEY Inc operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, Florida.
Diveroli, it said, was 19 years old when he became president of AEY Inc in 2005
and began bidding on an array US government munition contracts.
The company, which was founded by his father in 1999, has eight employees, the
army said.
Between March and December of 2007, the army placed orders for more than 223
million dollars worth of munitions with AEY, according to the army memo.
Most of it was ammunition for AK-47 rifles and light machine guns, and grenades
for rocket-propelled grenade launchers, the memo said.
The Times said the ammunition AEY provided was more than 40 years old and in
decomposing packaging.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the army was looking into the origin of
the munitions and complaints about substandard packaging of the munitions
delivered to Afghanistan.
US military officials in Afghanistan stated "no safety incidents were reported
and (there were) no reports of any ammunition that has malfunctioned associated
with this particular contract," he said.
"That said, there is some concern with the packaging of the ammunition that's
not in accord with the type of standards that we would like to see and would
expect in the performance of this contract," he said.
The Times said the contractor had worked with middlemen and a shell company on a
US list of entities suspected of engaging in illegal arms trafficking.
It also raised questions about how the army vetted AEY, a previously unknown
defense contractor whose principle officers had little experience in army
procurement.
In 2005, the year
Diveroli
became president, AEY
was awarded 59 contracts valued at 7.2 million dollars, primarily by the Defense
and State Departments, according to the army memo. In 2006, it was awarded 48
contracts valued at 2.4 million dollars, it said.
The big step up came in fiscal 2007 when it was awarded 29 government contracts
valued at 201.7 billion dollars.
"This extreme increase in the value of AEY's government contracts can be
attributed to the award of ... a requirements type contract to provide
non-standard ammunition to the Afghan National
What's not explained in the article is: "Who are these people?"
UPDATE: With lots of help from my alert readers, I've found out more about the
clan involved.
The NYT article does mention that Diveroli got his start working briefly for his
uncle Bar-Kochba Botach's weapons shop, Botach Tactical.
minority contract
Here's a fun discussion thread entitled "BotachTactical.com is by far the worst
company I have ever dealt with...,
Botach Tactical is a state-licensed and city-contracted bulk gun supply business
in operation on the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and 43rd Place, it was learned
this week.
The gun dealership, owned by
Bartochba
Botach,
was discovered Friday by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, and a group of
Crenshaw area residents, who, responding to rumors, went to the unmarked
storefront at 3423 W. 43rd Place and demanded entry.
Once inside, the group, which included the congresswoman’s daughter, Karen
Titus, and activists Steve Cokely, Sandra Moore and Maurice Griffin, confronted
Botach, who admitted to being a gun merchant.
“He said he is an international arms dealer with a government contract and that
everything he does at his Crenshaw store is legal,” Moore said. “He told us he
has a right to be in there, but we didn’t.
“He said, yeah, he sells guns and ammunition in bulk, but only to law
enforcement and the military,” Moore added. “He said he is an Israeli and that
he operates the gun business with his family. I asked him why he had to sell
them in our community. I was angry, so I told him to go sell them in his own
community.”
Moore described the site as the neighborhood’s former pawnshop, stripped of all
identifying signage and fortified with thick, double-plated glass. “And dogs,”
she said.
“He’s got several vicious dogs on the premises. The guy said he also owns
Maverick’s Flat across the street from his gun store and he uses it as a
warehouse, so we went over there, too, and I ran into a cop coming out with a
box of bullets.”
Waters, Moore and company went directly to the office of their city
representative, Councilman Bernard Parks, to report and protest the presence of
the gun dealership. Parks spent the next two days researching the business in
question and Tuesday reported the following:
Botach Tactical is a gun supply store that has allegedly been operated by Botach
for 12 years. Parks said Botach has had other businesses in the community for at
least 20 years.“He said, yeah, he sells guns and ammunition in bulk, but only to
law enforcement and the military,” Moore added.
“He said he is an Israeli and that he
operates the gun business with his family. I asked him why he had to sell them
in our community. I was angry, so I told him to go sell them in his own
community.”
The councilman said Botach has a current valid state license to sell arms and is
contracted by the Los Angeles Police Commission to buy and sell guns, ammunition
and arms-related materials in bulk through the Internet to police agencies
around the country.
Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, who was the area’s city
councilman for 12 years before Parks’ election, Tuesday disputed the 12-year
operation of the gun dealership at the 43rd Place site.
“It has always been a pawnshop,” Ridley-Thomas said. “When did it turn into a
gun store? How did it turn into a gun store? You can’t change the use of a
building without proper notification, permits and public hearings.
“Where are the public notification documents?” Ridley-Thomas asked. “This is
something the residents would have had to be apprised of in advance and be
allowed to respond to before such a business began operating.
“A pawnshop showed up at that location shortly after the [1992] civil unrest and
people didn’t like it there. It had always been a controversial site as a
pawnshop. How did it shift from a pawnshop to a gun shop, which is something
even more controversial?”
In 2006, Luke Ford noticed this LA Daily News story about the SoCal arms dealer
who appears to be the uncle of Efraim Diveroli:
Makeup artist to the stars Judith Boteach thought she had found true love when
it took four people to carry all of the flowers and jewelry lavished on her the
day multimillionaire Yoav Botach proposed marriage.
Boteach said she learned a month after their Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony
that her groom hadn't obtained a California marriage license, but she believed
in their future together.
"I loved him," said Boteach. "I trusted him and he kept telling me (the wedding
license) wasn't necessary."
But their relationship ended unhappily, with Boteach kicked out of the couple's
Beverlywood home in her nightgown. And she is now embroiled in a court battle
for half of Botach's fortune - millions of dollars she claims he promised her
should the couple ever split.
"This is the largest palimony case in American history," said Robert W. Hirsh,
Boteach's attorney, who explained that his client cannot fight for alimony since
she and Botach were never legally married.
According to court records, Botach co-owns 144 commercial and other properties
in Los Angeles, as well as Botach Tactical, a nationwide distributor of police
and military equipment. But Boteach is seeking access to financial documents to
determine the defendant's assets. "We would not be surprised if his net worth is
$700 million," Hirsh said.
Judith Boteach apparently now runs a Moroccan restaurant, BBC Cafe, in Beverly
Hills. An LA Times restaurant review describes her as "Judith Boteach, the
charismatic Moroccan American chef and co-owner and her partners Jay and Karine
Kaplan and Gabriel Azoulay."
Apparently, Yoav Botach is the father of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of the
bestseller Kosher Sex and host of the Shalom in the Home reality TV show on TLC
Network. He calls himself "America's Rabbi" on his website.
The treasurer of the dubious Michael Jackson charity was Shmuley's sister,
Alteret Diveroli, which is the name we started with.
But, I must say, at this point there are so many Botaches and Boteaches and
Yoavs and Bar-Kochbas floating around that I may have well have gotten some of
this wrong.
The VP and #2 officer of Diveroli's AEY the firm that got the huge contract from
the taxpayers, is 25-year-old licensed masseuse David M. Packouz. He appears to
be the son of Rabbi Kalman Packouz (a.k.a., Kenneth M. Packouz) of Miami Beach,
author of How to Prevent an Intermarriage. Rabbi Kalman is Executive Director of
Aish HaTorah Jerusalem Fund.
There's been a lot of speculation over how young Diveroli got this lucrative
contract. One common suggestion is that perhaps he's a big Republican campaign
donor.
Yet, the only person mentioned in this posting who has contributed to a
Presidential candidate over the last decade, according to OpenSecrets.org, is
pawnshop owner turned merchant of death Yoav Botach, who gave $1,000 to John
Edwards last year.
Overall, it just sounds like a whole family full of self-starters.
My published articles
