Image via CrunchBaseAfghan elite 'plundered $900m' from leading bank - Democratic UndergroundA coterie of well-connected Afghan businessmen and politicians may have plundered as much as $900m from the country's biggest commercial bank, three times the amount of earlier estimates, and the equivalent of about 7 per cent of Afghanistan's total gross domestic product.
Kabul Bank's funds were treated like personal accounts, it is claimed by several well-known members of Afghan society. Mahmoud Karzai, a brother of the Afghan President and prominent shareholder in Kabul Bank, told The New York Times
that the bank's former chairman lent himself about $98m (£62m) to buy one of Afghanistan's airlines, and then used deposits to subsidise the carrier in an attempt to drive rivals out of business. Yet so difficult has the hunt for the missing millions become that the very same man, Sherkhan Farnood, had been brought in to help trace the missing cash.
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Officials say the value of questionable outstanding loans written by the bank is far greater than originally thought – and auditors poring over the lender's books think up to $800m is {b]potentially unrecoverable.{/b]
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-eli...
The last line of the article is quite telling.
"It's a meticulous account of the workings of kleptocracy, but from a Western perspective perhaps the most terrifying part of the tale is the motive. The businessmen, politicians and officials – the cream of Afghan society – are milking Afghanistan for all they can. Why? Because they don't believe their country has a future."
Kabul Bank's funds were treated like personal accounts, it is claimed by several well-known members of Afghan society. Mahmoud Karzai, a brother of the Afghan President and prominent shareholder in Kabul Bank, told The New York Times
that the bank's former chairman lent himself about $98m (£62m) to buy one of Afghanistan's airlines, and then used deposits to subsidise the carrier in an attempt to drive rivals out of business. Yet so difficult has the hunt for the missing millions become that the very same man, Sherkhan Farnood, had been brought in to help trace the missing cash.Related articles
* Bright symbol of renewed hope tarnished by a greedy, corrupt elite
* Search the news archive for more stories
Officials say the value of questionable outstanding loans written by the bank is far greater than originally thought – and auditors poring over the lender's books think up to $800m is {b]potentially unrecoverable.{/b]
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-eli...
The last line of the article is quite telling.
"It's a meticulous account of the workings of kleptocracy, but from a Western perspective perhaps the most terrifying part of the tale is the motive. The businessmen, politicians and officials – the cream of Afghan society – are milking Afghanistan for all they can. Why? Because they don't believe their country has a future."
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