Young Enterprise Curse Watch

I recall I once told readers of this blog to watch out for anyone who starred in a "Young Enterprise" program or won an award for the so-and-so most likely to succeed in business. They'll be the ones vanishing over the hills with Acme Materials Science Ltd's total cash balances, while you try to work out what you'll do with all the squid beaks and what to tell the Financial Services Authority, or else they'll be the ones being sucked down the whirlpool at the centre of some kind of fraudulent trainwreck, just as the fascist octopus sings its swan song.

Something similar appears to have happened in the case of these young entrepreneurs, who took on a contract to supply US-supported police and soldiers in Afghanistan with arms despite a total absence of relevant experience, common sense, or integrity. The result has been the export of a scary quantity of Albanian ammunition, much of which is either dangerous or useless or both, and the waste of large sums of federal money.

It is highly probable that our friend Viktor Bout got in on the deal at some point, too, as it involved sending armaments from the Balkans to Afghanistan and Iraq by air freight. (I just did a Freudian typo: "air fright".) But the whole business has a saving personal touch. Here's a photo of executive vice president and licensed masseur, David Packouz:

I have to say that had I been the NYT pictures editor, I'd have been unable to resist captioning this photograph Dude, Where's My Kalashnikov? There's also this:

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.”

Oh, the humanity!