Media: millions of dollars disappeared from the accounts of Afghan authorities during the Taliban offensive

07 June 2022


Tens of millions of dollars disappeared from the Afghan National Directorate of Security building in Kabul during an offensive by militants of the radical Taliban (banned in Russia) last summer. The information is contained in a preliminary report by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction published  on Monday in the Politico newspaper.


"Significant amounts of US currency probably disappeared from Afghan government property in the chaos of the Taliban takeover, including $5 million taken from the presidential palace and tens of millions from the National Directorate vault. Attempts to loot the cash holdings of other agencies appear to have been a common occurrence," the report said.


At the same time, the inspector general found out that reports that former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani took out more than $100 million from the country do not correspond to reality. According to the expert, who cites eyewitnesses, Ghani and his advisers took away not more than one million dollars by helicopter, but, most likely, about $500 thousand.


Ghani himself strongly denied accusations that he had taken large sums of money out of Kabul. Various sources, including the media, politicians and Taliban representatives, accused the former president of stealing money from Afghan citizens and called on him to return all illegally acquired funds.

 

 

GSV "Russia - Islamic world"

Photo: ResoluteSupportMedia/Creative Commons 2.0

Based on materials from TASS