Once again a member of the Karzai family, whose patriarch serves as leader of Afghanistan, has been accused of helping defraud the nation that the U.S. has so generously supported.

 

Mahmoud Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai, allegedly received $22 million from Kabul Bank, which the Afghan government had to take over after bank officials illegally funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the nation’s elite. The bank bills itself as “the largest commercial Bank of Afghanistan.”

 

Kabul Bank claims on its website, “We are the most preferred Bank by the people of this country.” Apparently, that is especially true among the elite.

 

The scheme, involving fake names, forged documents, fictitious companies and secret records, forced the Afghan government to seize the bank, split it in two, dissolve the shareholders’ assets and spend more than $800 million to bail it out.

 

In addition to the bank scheme, Mahmoud Karzai has been implicated in an even larger criminal conspiracy that has led to $3 billion in cashing being flown out of the country over the past three years.

 

And yet another Karzai, Ahmed Wali, the president’s younger half-brother, reportedly possesses “shadow ownership” of the Kandahar local government. Along with exerting “considerable influence over business life” in the city, Ahmed Wali Karzai controls two private security forces, Watan Risk Management and Asia Security Group. The latter is run by the brothers’ cousin, Hashmat Karzai.

 

Elaborate Ruse behind Vast Kabul Bank Fraud (by Joshua Partlow, Washington Post)

Billions in Cash Shipped out of Afghanistan (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Karzai Family Inc. in Afghanistan (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)