AFGHANISTAN’S FORMER PRESIDENT GHANI AND ADVISERS FLED WITH AROUND $500,000: US WATCHDOG

Wed 08 June 2022:

A US inspector general probe concluded that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his advisers fled the country with only about $500,000, as opposed to the millions of Dollars reported by the media.

As the Taliban entered Kabul in August of 2021, reports surfaced that Ghani and his senior advisers fled Afghanistan on helicopters with millions in cash on board. In October, two US congressional panels asked Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko to confirm if money was stolen and how much.

“Although SIGAR found that some cash was taken from the grounds of the palace and loaded onto these helicopters, evidence indicates that this number did not exceed $1 million and may have been closer in value to $500,000,” Spoko said in a letter in the report to Congress, a copy of which was obtained by Politico on Monday.

The report cites one former Afghan government official – who was on the helicopter – as saying that everyone had “$5,000 to $10,000 in their pockets, no one had millions.”

SIGAR noted that Ghani and National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib have both insisted to the media they did not flee with millions of dollars on that day. However, when asked by CBS news months after the collapse if the group took any cash, Mohib said, “absolutely not… we just took ourselves.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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