UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council has asked all governments to freeze the assets of two individuals suspected of involvement in past arms sales to Liberia.
A Security Council committee Thursday added the names of Syrian-born accountant Richard Ammar Chichakli of Texas and Ukrainian-born businessman Valeriy Naydo to a list of individuals whose assets have been frozen around the world.
Since 2003, the council has been overseeing a number of restrictions on Liberia, including a ban on Liberia's diamond exports and an arms embargo. More than 50 entities and individuals have had their assets frozen by the Security Council's committee on Liberia sanctions.
The United Nations identified Chichakli as international gunrunner Viktor Bout's chief financial manager. Payments for weapons supplied to Liberia through Bout's network in 2001 were reportedly directed through Chichakli's bank accounts.
Valeriy Naydo has been described as "Bout's number two man" in South Africa by another Bout associate. A former pilot for Bout, Naydo is a director of Air Pass, considered to be a Bout front company.
The council also asked governments to freeze assets of about 30 other companies, including Air Cess, the flagship firm of Victor Bout's network. Originally active in Belgium, Air Cess has had to move more than once since it first appeared in 1995 due to investigations by authorities in Belgium, Swaziland and South Africa.
Other companies on the list include Airbas, a commercial charter company supposedly run by Bout, and Transavia Network, considered to be one of his oldest companies.
Bout, a Russian, has been accused of pouring small arms and ammunitions into Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the Congo, funding massacres across the world.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered freezes on the assets of Chichakli, Naydo and the 30 companies now mentioned by the Security Council.
The list put forward by the United Nations makes these freezes global.
In 2003, the United Nations imposed travel bans on former Liberian President Charles Taylor and his family.
