As of 2026, Efraim Diveroli has an estimated net worth of about $15 million to $30 million, with $25 million the most quoted figure. He made his money as a teenage arms dealer whose company AEY won a Pentagon deal worth almost $300 million, and he now lends and invests from Miami.
| Quick facts | Details |
|---|---|
| Net worth | About $15 million to $30 million (public estimates, unverified) |
| Full name | Efraim Elchanan Diveroli |
| Born | December 20, 1985 |
| Age | 40 |
| Birthplace | Miami Beach, Florida, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Company | AEY Inc. (former arms supplier); linked to YSA Investments 1 and family investment entities in Miami |
| Source of wealth | Defense contracts, later lending and investing |
| Known for | The Afghan ammunition scandal and the film War Dogs |
| Book | Once a Gun Runner (memoir) |
| Played on screen by | Jonah Hill in War Dogs |
Who Is Efraim Diveroli
Efraim Diveroli is an American businessman, author and former arms dealer from Miami Beach, Florida. In his late teens he turned his father’s small shell company, AEY Inc., into a supplier for the US military. By the age of 21 he held one of the biggest small-business defense contracts of its time.
That contract ended in a fraud case, a guilty plea and a federal prison sentence. Hollywood then turned his story into War Dogs, with Jonah Hill playing him. Today he describes himself as a businessman, entrepreneur and author, and his name keeps showing up in big court fights over loans and investments.
Efraim Diveroli Net Worth
Efraim Diveroli’s net worth is estimated at about $15 million to $30 million. The number you see most often online is $25 million, which is also what this page used to show. Some biography sites go as low as $15 million and a few go as high as $30 million.
None of these figures comes from Diveroli or from a public filing. He runs his money through private companies, so nobody outside can see his full balance sheet. That is why I show a range and treat every figure as an estimate.
What Is Behind The Low And High Figures
The low end of about $15 million assumes he kept only a modest part of the AEY money after prison, fines and lawsuits. The high end of about $30 million assumes his lending and investing since his release have grown that base. I think the middle of the range is the fairest guess until better data comes out.
Why The Estimates Vary So Much
Most wealth sites start with the AEY years and assume he kept a big share of the money. Court records show the Army paid AEY about $66 million on the Afghan contract before it was ended, but revenue is not profit. A large part of that money went to suppliers, shipping and partners.
He then spent years in prison, faced lawsuits from former partners and paid fines and legal bills. After his release, he moved into lending and investing, where the numbers are private. Each of these steps can push his real wealth up or down, and outside estimates can only guess.
The YSA Claim Is Not His Net Worth
You may see the figure of about $932 million connected to his name in news reports. That is the amount YSA Investments 1, a lending company with Diveroli as a principal, says an Oklahoma landlord owes it. It is a disputed debt claim in court, not money sitting in his bank account.
If YSA collects even part of that claim through property deeds, his wealth could rise sharply. If the courts rule against YSA, the loans could turn into losses and legal costs. In my view, his net worth today depends heavily on how that fight ends.
Efraim Diveroli Early Life And Family
Efraim Diveroli was born on December 20, 1985, in Miami Beach, Florida, to Ateret and Michael Diveroli. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and attended the Hebrew Academy in Miami Beach. Reports say he was expelled in the ninth grade and never finished high school.
At about 15, he went to Los Angeles to work for his uncle, who sold guns and gear to police departments. That is where he learned how arms deals worked, from paperwork to pricing. His family also includes his grandfather, the Los Angeles property owner Yoav Botach, and his uncle, the rabbi and author Shmuley Boteach.
A money dispute with his uncle sent him back to Miami as a teenager. Instead of going back to school, he took over AEY Inc., a company his father had set up. The name came from the first letters of family names, and the company had little business before he took charge.
How Efraim Diveroli Built AEY
Diveroli ran AEY from a small apartment in Miami with a laptop and a phone. He searched the federal government’s contract listings every day and bid on small orders that bigger defense firms ignored. A US push to give more military work to small businesses helped him get in the door.
He hired his childhood friend David Packouz, a former massage therapist, to help with the bids. A Utah gun maker named Ralph Merrill came in as the main financial backer. Merrill put about $1.5 million into the big Afghan deal and expected a share of the profits.
Reports say AEY handled about 150 government contracts for guns, helmets and ammunition between 2003 and 2008. By some reports he was already a millionaire before he turned 20, and he told Packouz he had about $1.8 million in the bank at 18. Army documents later showed AEY held more than $200 million in contracts at its peak.
The $298 Million Afghan Ammunition Deal
In January 2007, the US Army awarded AEY a contract worth about $298 million to supply ammunition to Afghan army and police forces. The order covered millions of rounds for AK-47 rifles, plus grenades, mortar rounds and rockets. Reports say AEY won it by bidding far below its larger rivals and taking a slim profit margin.
He was only 21 when the Pentagon signed the deal. A House committee later noted that a contract this size was being run by a 21-year-old president and a 25-year-old former massage therapist. For a short time, Diveroli looked like the youngest big winner in the defense business.
The Chinese Ammunition Problem
To fill the order, AEY bought old ammunition stockpiles in Albania through a Swiss middleman. When the AEY team checked the stock, they found crates with Chinese markings. US rules banned buying Chinese-made arms, so the shipments broke the contract terms.
Instead of walking away, AEY had the ammunition repacked into plain boxes to hide where it came from. The company then certified to the Army that the rounds were Albanian or Hungarian. Investigators later found that much of the ammunition was decades old, and some of it was described as unusable.
The Collapse Of AEY
A New York Times investigation in March 2008 exposed the scheme, and the Defense Department suspended AEY from future contracts. The Army ended the Afghan contract for cause that spring. By then, AEY had been paid about $66 million.
Congress held hearings on how the Pentagon had picked such a young and untested supplier. The House Oversight Committee found that warning signs about AEY and its partners were missed. The case became a well-known example of weak checks in wartime buying.
Efraim Diveroli Legal Troubles And Prison
In June 2008, a federal grand jury in Miami charged Diveroli, AEY, Packouz, Alexander Podrizki and Merrill with fraud and conspiracy. Diveroli later pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, and the other counts were dropped. In January 2011, a federal judge sentenced him to four years in prison.
While waiting for that sentence, he got into more trouble. In 2010 he was arrested in Brevard County, Florida, for having guns and ammunition while barred from owning them. He pleaded guilty to that charge too, which added more time to his sentence.
Packouz and Podrizki took plea deals and received house arrest. Merrill went to trial, was convicted and was sentenced to four years in prison. Diveroli was released in 2014 after serving his time.
The Army Debarment
In March 2011, the Army barred AEY, Diveroli and several linked companies from government contracts for about 14 years. That meant he could not sell to the federal government for most of his adult life. For an arms dealer, this cut off his main source of income.
In March 2022, the Army ended his debarment early. It found that he had shown “present responsibility” after more than a decade of changes. In theory, this opened the door for him to bid on government work again.
Efraim Diveroli Timeline
| Period | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1985 | Born in Miami Beach, Florida |
| Around 2001 | Returned to Miami as a teenager and took over AEY Inc. |
| 2003 to 2008 | AEY won about 150 US government contracts |
| January 2007 | AEY won the $298 million Afghan ammunition contract |
| March 2008 | New York Times report; AEY suspended from federal contracts |
| June 2008 | Indicted in Miami on fraud and conspiracy charges |
| January 2011 | Sentenced to four years in federal prison |
| 2014 | Released after serving his sentence |
| 2016 | War Dogs released; memoir Once a Gun Runner published |
| March 2022 | Army ended his debarment early |
| Recent | YSA loan fight in Oklahoma, Delaware ruling and Chapter 11 case |
The timeline shows how short his rise was. He went from a small Miami apartment to a nearly $300 million deal in about six years, and lost it in about one.
Efraim Diveroli Income Sources
| Income source | What we know |
|---|---|
| AEY defense contracts | Dozens of US military contracts; the Afghan deal paid about $66 million before it was ended |
| Memoir Once a Gun Runner | Sales are not public; the book came out around the release of War Dogs |
| Lending through YSA Investments 1 | Millions of dollars in high-interest loans to an Oklahoma landlord; YSA claims about $932 million is owed |
| Family investment entities | Miami-based family office and Kingbird Ventures took stakes in small public companies |
| Ammunition business | He has been linked to an ammunition business called Ammoworks since his release |
Efraim Diveroli And War Dogs
Journalist Guy Lawson wrote about AEY for Rolling Stone, and later expanded the story into a book. Director Todd Phillips turned it into the film War Dogs. Jonah Hill played Diveroli and Miles Teller played Packouz, with Bradley Cooper in a supporting role.
Diveroli was not happy with the film. He sued Warner Bros, saying the studio used his story and his early writings without paying him. He also argued that marketing the movie as a true story was misleading, since many scenes were changed or made up.
In May 2017, a federal judge refused to throw out part of his false advertising claim against the studio. The film still opened in theaters as planned and reached a wide audience. For many people, Jonah Hill’s version is the only Efraim Diveroli they know.
The Memoir Once A Gun Runner
Diveroli wrote his own account, Once a Gun Runner, with author Matthew Cox. The book covers his teenage years in the gun trade, the Afghan deal and his time in prison. It came out around the same time as War Dogs, so many readers picked it up to compare the two versions.
In the book, he puts much of the blame for AEY’s fall on his former partners. Packouz has called the memoir a work of fiction. As with most of this story, both sides tell it very differently.
Lawsuits From His Former Partners
After the case, Packouz sued Diveroli, saying he never got his share of the profits. Merrill also sued him over money tied to the Afghan deal. These cases show that AEY’s profits were never as simple as the headlines suggested.
Diveroli has said there was never a formal profit-sharing deal with Packouz. In his memoir, he says he once offered Packouz $275,000 to settle the dispute. The two former friends have not worked together since.
Efraim Diveroli Business Ventures After Prison
After his release, Diveroli kept a lower profile in the arms trade. He has been linked to an ammunition business called Ammoworks, and he has spoken about wanting to change how people see the AEY story. His bigger moves since then have come in finance.
A Miami family office called Diveroli Investment Group lists its office on Brickell Avenue. Its chief investment officer is Aharon Diveroli, Efraim’s younger brother. The group, along with a linked company called Kingbird Ventures, has filed SEC forms on stakes in small public companies.
Stakes In Small Public Companies
SEC filings show the group took a 10.82 percent stake in the beverage company LQR House. It later disclosed a 9.48 percent stake in Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, a small owner of shopping centers. Aharon Diveroli called Wheeler deeply undervalued in a press release.
The Wheeler position did not last long. Within about two weeks, the group sold all of its roughly 203,000 shares. Moves like these suggest an active trading style rather than long-term holdings.
The Maddox Defense Lawsuit
Maddox Defense and Envirotech Vehicles have sued Diveroli and related parties in federal court in San Diego. They claim he buys small stakes in companies and then uses lawsuits to push for deals. The first version of the case was dismissed, and the companies refiled it in May.
These are only allegations, and Diveroli has not been found liable for any of them. I mention the case because it shows how much of his current business plays out in courtrooms. The outcome could affect his costs and his reputation.
The YSA Investments And Vesta Apartment Fight
The biggest recent story about Efraim Diveroli involves apartments in Oklahoma. YSA Investments 1, a Miami lending company with Diveroli as a principal, lent money to landlord Marc Kulick and his Vesta companies. Court papers show the first loan was for $775,000 at 7 percent a month.
More loans followed, and court filings say the total borrowed grew into the millions. Some of the later notes carried extreme interest rates, with one reported at 7,000 percent compounding daily. YSA now claims about $932 million is owed, a figure Kulick’s side disputes.
The Delaware Ruling And Apartment Takeovers
In a June ruling, Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled for YSA in a key part of the fight. The ruling backed YSA’s right to record second mortgages on the properties. YSA then took deeds to about 26 apartment complexes in Tulsa and the Oklahoma City area.
In July, YSA took over operations at several Tulsa complexes. A later court order confirmed YSA’s ownership of ten Tulsa properties, including 23 East, Barcelona and One Eton Square. Tenants at those buildings were told to pay rent to YSA’s managers.
The Bankruptcy Case
Late in July, YSA Investments 1 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware. The filing listed assets and debts of between $500 million and $1 billion each. The case was later moved to the federal bankruptcy court in western Oklahoma.
Fannie Mae, which holds senior loans on many of the buildings, has started its own foreclosure steps. Oklahoma regulators are also looking into Kulick’s fundraising. With so many claims on the same properties, it could take a long time before anyone knows who ends up with what.
Efraim Diveroli Personal Life
Efraim Diveroli lives in Miami, Florida, and keeps most of his private life out of the news. He has not shared verified details about a wife, partner or children in public, so I am leaving those out.
His younger brother Aharon works with him in the family’s investment business. The family is well known in Miami and Los Angeles property circles through his grandfather’s side. Beyond that, he rarely speaks about his family in interviews.
Efraim Diveroli does not run a verified, active social media account. An X account under his name promoted his memoir but has been quiet for years. An Instagram account in his name also shares mostly older posts about the book and his family.
Because I could not confirm a recent post from an official account, I have not embedded one here. If he starts posting on a verified account, I will add his latest update to this page. For now, court filings and news reports are the best way to follow his business.
Efraim Diveroli In Videos
His story has been covered in film featurettes, crime shows and business TV. Here are three videos that show the War Dogs angle and the real AEY case.
Lessons From Efraim Diveroli’s Story
- Speed can win contracts, but weak checks can end a business just as fast.
- Hiding a problem from a customer turns a contract dispute into a crime.
- Partners need written deals, or profit fights can last for years.
- A public story can be told for you, so it pays to tell yours first.
- High-interest lending can bring big claims, but it also brings big court battles.
His story mixes real hustle with some very bad choices. If you like stories about people who made and lost fortunes in public, read about Charlie Shrem’s net worth and Tonya Harding’s net worth. For a look at how big Hollywood film deals work, see Kevin Feige’s net worth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Efraim Diveroli’s net worth?
Efraim Diveroli’s net worth is estimated at about $15 million to $30 million. The most common figure online is $25 million. He has never confirmed any number, so treat all of them as estimates.
How did Efraim Diveroli make his money?
He made his early money by selling guns, helmets and ammunition to the US military through AEY Inc. His biggest deal was a $298 million Afghan ammunition contract. Today he is linked to lending and investing in Miami.
Is Efraim Diveroli still in prison?
No, Efraim Diveroli is not in prison. He served his sentence for conspiracy and a later gun charge and was released in 2014. He now lives in Miami.
Who played Efraim Diveroli in War Dogs?
Jonah Hill played Efraim Diveroli in War Dogs, directed by Todd Phillips. Miles Teller played his partner David Packouz. Diveroli later sued the studio, Warner Bros, over the film.
Are Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz still friends?
No, the two are no longer friends. Packouz sued Diveroli over his share of the AEY profits, and he has called Diveroli’s memoir a work of fiction. They have not worked together since the case.
What is YSA Investments?
YSA Investments 1 is a Miami lending company with Efraim Diveroli as a principal. It lent money to Oklahoma landlord Marc Kulick and now claims about $932 million is owed. The dispute is in bankruptcy court in Oklahoma.
How old is Efraim Diveroli?
Efraim Diveroli was born on December 20, 1985, in Miami Beach, Florida. That makes him 40 years old. He was only 21 when AEY won its Pentagon contract.
Conclusion
Efraim Diveroli went from a high school dropout to a Pentagon contractor, then to federal prison and back to business. Public estimates put his net worth at about $15 million to $30 million, but the real number is private. His Oklahoma loan fight could change that figure in either direction.
Whatever you think of him, his story shows how fast a business and a reputation can turn. For another founder who learned from big wins and losses, read about Ben Horowitz’s net worth.
Jitendra Vaswani is a globally recognized expert in SEO and AI-driven digital marketing. He has spoken at leading international events and is the founder of Digiexe, a results-driven digital marketing agency; Venuelabs, a platform that helps brands amplify their voice with expert PR and marketing solutions; and AffiliateBooster, an affiliate marketing news site. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Jitendra has empowered countless businesses to thrive online. His bestselling book, Inside A Hustler’s Brain: In Pursuit of Financial Freedom, has sold more than 20,000 copies worldwide, reflecting his influence and dedication to helping digital marketers achieve success. Follow Jitendra on Instagram, X/Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
