Two Russians, including a business associate of imprisoned arms dealer Viktor Bout, were thwarted in an attempt to form an aviation company based in a coastal African nation. The government of Mauritius spurned the planned air deal led by Sergei Denisenko, a Russian who is targeted by U.S. Treasury financial sanctions as part of the government’s continuing efforts against the Bout empire. Denisenko has been identified in United Nations and U.S. law enforcement documents as a Bout lieutenant and was once listed as an officer of a Texas company linked to Bout.
—New York Times: Two former business associates of Viktor Bout, the convicted Russian arms dealer now in federal prison in the United States, have been blocked by the government of Mauritius from setting up an aviation company that could have been used for smuggling guns, according to the government and a private American arms investigation group.