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Kabul Bank’s fraud; the National Unity Government recovers only $30 million
Kabul Bank had around 1,300 million dollar banknotes deposit. Around 9 years back, the bank went bankrupt, after its managers and shareholders withdrew nearly 900 million dollars illegally.
The ex-government, led by Hamed Karzai, could retrieve nearly 300 million dollars in cash.
President Ghani, in his early days of power, promised to end the biggest corruption case and instructed the judiciary to prosecute the case all over.
Five years have passed, and the National Unity Government could only retrieve $30 million from the KB case.
The Integrity Watch Afghanistan said that the Kabul Bank Case had been treated politically.
Mohammad Ikram Fazli, the Integrity Watch Afghanistan head said, “Unfortunately, since the beginning, the KB case has been dealt with, politically, and the main culprits of the case have never been prosecuted.”
However, the attorney general said the Kabul Bank’s case had been taken to the court on time, and that the offenders had been jailed as per the court’s verdict.
Jamshid Rasouli, the attorney general’s spokesperson said in the matter, “The case has been prosecuted once on the National Unity Government’s watch, and the judiciary has finalized the case. Offenders, who were found guilty, were sent to jail.”
The aftershocks of the Kabul Bank crisis shocked investors and economists. That is to say that the court found Khalil Firouzi and Shirkhan Farnoud guilty, but later on, Firouzi received the contract of constructing a town from the Ministry of Urban Development and Land, and on the verge of the election, Firouzi was released from the Jail.
According to critics, Firouzi’s political support helped him bypass the law. While Shirkhan Farnoud ended up dead in jail.
Reporter: Ali Asghari