Bottoms up! Looking for new business opportunities after his decades in the weapons trade, Viktor Bout is apparently considering a move into a new potential sideline as an alcohol promoter.
According to a new report in the Moscow Times, the convicted former arms dealer has applied for a trademark for the use of his names — in Cyrillic — for alcoholic beverages.
The Moscow newspaper reports that Bout told the website RBC-Wine that he had applied to register his first and surname, the Latin transcription “Victor Bout” and the phrase “Kroot Kak Boot” (“Tough as Bout”) with the Russian state trademark authority Rospatent.
Bout explained that “various products with my name have appeared, so I consulted with lawyers and decided to register my trademark.” Bout said he had no immediate plans to produce anything under those trademarks.
According to the Moscow News report, Bout was disciplined during his 10-year stint in a federal prison in Illinois for reportedly brewing kombucha, or “mushroom tea,” which the newspaper claimed was popular among fellow inmates and wardens. The Moscow Times reported Bout was placed in solitary confinement for 90 days after a prison officer found traces of alcohol in the drink. Bout was convicted in 2011 by a federal jury in New York for conspiracy and other counts after his 2008 arrest in Bangkok as part of a sting operation by US agents and Thai police — ending a two-decade run as the world’s most prolific arms dealer.
In “Merchant of Death,” the book about Bout written by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, one chapter recounts Bout’s use of his private arms cargo transports to scour for beer on behalf of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a Congolese warlord. Concerned that he was running out of beer during his guerilla campaign to seize power, Bemba turned to Bout to replenish his inventory.
According to the book, Bout gathered his crew and flew with a squad of Bemba’s armed men across the border into Uganda and commandeered a small town, ordering its inhabitants to scurry for more beer. The choppers returned with “enough drink to last the night.”