Robert Granieri, the co-founder of Wall Street analytical firm Jane Street, accidentally provided funding for AK-47s meant to be used in a South Sudanese coup, his lawyers said in court documents, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Granieri admitted to providing funding to Peter Ajak and Abraham Keech, who a U.S. District Court in Arizona indicted in 2024 on arms trafficking charges.
The pair allegedly attempted to export fully automatic AK47s and PKM rifles, RPG-7 rocket launchers, FIM-92 Stinger missile systems and M-67 hand grenades to South Sudan, according to the indictment.
Lawyers for Ajak and Keech claimed they would have been unable to do so without Granieri’s help, Bloomberg reported, citing court documents. (RELATED: Judge Threatening To Halt South Sudan Deportations Affiliated With Group That Rejected Term ‘Illegal’)
“Without the significant financing that Mr. Granieri could and agreed to provide, the alleged conspiracy would have been impossible,” lawyers allegedly said, claiming the fact that Granieri was not being prosecuted proved the government’s case was an example of anti-black racism, according to Bloomberg.
Granieri, one of Jane Street‘s four co-founders, transferred $7 million to the two Sudanese-born men in February 2024, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar. Weeks after, Ajak and Keech inspected a warehouse in Arizona full of weapons, according to the outlet.
A collection of weapons which Peter Ajak and Abraham Keech allegedly procured with funding from Jane Street co-founder Robert Granieri. 6/25/2025. (Screenshot/USDOJ)
Granieri’s lawyers claimed Ajak duped him.
After a February meeting between Ajak and a group of people the indictment defined as “PERSON-4,” “PERSON-5” and “PERSON-3,” the latter of whom was described as a middleman for a New York-based financier, Ajak texted an undercover agent (UC), “We are getting the funding,”
Michael Holtzman, a public relations specialist who attended a meeting of similar nature, according to Bloomberg, also claimed he was duped.
“Based on the government’s indictment of Peter, it would seem he lied to me and others about his intentions from the outset,” Holtzman told Bloomberg.
While texting the UC from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), who he believed to be the supplier of the weapons, Ajak assured him that the middleman and financier did not know what he planned to do with the weapons.
“They knew only that Ajak was procuring weapons for $3 million, but did not know (and did not want to know) any further details,” the indictment alleged.
After Ajak told the UC he got the funding, he asked him to prepare a fictitious invoice for humanitarian supplies.
The fictitious contract claims the money was intended to support a humanitarian mission.
An allegedly fictitious contract which US Attorneys allege Peter Ajak and Abraham Keech used to facilitate funding to purchase weapons in order to orchestrate a South Sudanese coup. 6/25/2025. Screenshot/USDOJ.
The United Nations Security Council currently has an embargo on weapons shipments to South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, which achieved independence from Sudan in 2011 after a bitter civil war.
The country’s political landscape is so unstable that Ajak fretted in text messages that the government would collapse before he could get involved.
“Situation is so desperate right now in [South Sudan] that there might be a revolution while [the
weapons] are stuck in the sea, and then we will miss out on the action,” he allegedly texted his supplier, according to the indictment.
Granieri, who was a prominent backer for the 2024 presidential campaign of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, was not the only high-profile backer for the scheme, according to Bloomberg.
Russian dissident and chess champion Garry Kasparov also provided support as chair of the Human Rights Foundation, Ajak’s lawyers alleged, according to Bloomberg.