Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz: A Farewell to Arms
5/11/20261 hr 1 min
Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz were two Miami Beach stoners with zero military experience and absolutely no background in military procurement – but they had audacity to spare. The childhood friends hustled their way into nearly $300 million in Pentagon contracts, supplying ammunition to the Afghan army. They raked in millions along the way, blowing their profits on bayfront condos, luxury cars, and Miami clubs. But when you build a weapons empire on hustle, bravado, and a lot of weed… sooner or later, someone will notice the smoke.
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First 90 secondsSarah Hagi· Host0:00
Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. [upbeat music] Sachi, the longer we do the show, do you feel like the world of scammers gets smaller? Like, there are characters who do pop in every once in a while in various stories, which is pretty crazy.
Scaachi Koul· Host0:24
Yeah. It's like they all go to the same parties and clubs and schools and stay friends forever. It's bananas.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:30
Yeah. It's kind of like a scammer extended universe, and it has me thinking, "Is it all connected? Are all rich people in the same scammer networks?"
Scaachi Koul· Host0:41
Yes. Yes.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:43
Wow. Goes all the way to the top- Yeah ... doesn't it?
Scaachi Koul· Host0:46
Yep.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:46
[laughs] Well, today we're gonna talk about a couple of guys who inspired the actions in a previous story we covered. These two are not criminal masterminds. They're more like criminal fuck-ups, and like many scammers, they took advantage of an already exploitative industry and somehow made it worse. It's April 2007, and Alex Podrizki is standing inside a crumbling bunker in Albania staring at a mountain of aging ammunition stacked on wooden pallets. Alex is 24, slim with curly hair, a kid from Miami who's now halfway across the world working as a point man for an arms dealing company called