Una year later, inspectors still want to know what the ex-president did with Afghanistan’s money

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has released its final report regarding the “theft” of Afghanistan funds. It focuses on “allegations regarding President Ghani, former Afghan high-ranking officials and other allegations.”

SIGAR said that reports about Ghani running away from Kabul carrying hundreds of million of dollars had been exaggerated. However, a lot of U.S. taxpayer funds is still missing. Ghani wasn’t eager to discuss where this money went.

Ghani fled Kabul on August 15, 2021, ostensibly because he feared for his life as Taliban forces surrounded the capital. Some of his critics, including U.S. officials said that Ghani’s sudden helicopter departure made it more difficult for the Taliban to take control. This was because they expected Ghani, the victorious insurgents, to handle the transfer of power following President Joe Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal.

Within hours of Ghani’s quick exit from Kabul the Russian Embassy began spreading the rumors claiming that the former president had looted Afghanistan’s treasury while on his way out. He also packed hundreds of millions into his helicopter and ground vehicles.

” Four cars had money in them and tried to stuff more cash in the helicopter. According to Russia’s state-run Tass news agency, some money had been left on the runway. The source claimed that eyewitnesses were able to verify the claims.

Ghani released a statement from his refuge in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) denying the rumors he fled Afghanistan with bags full of cash.

” I had to flee Afghanistan three days ago with only one set of traditional clothing, the vest and sandals that I was wearing.” he said.

At roughly the same time, Afghan Ambassador to Tajikistan Mohammad Zahir Aghbar was accusing Ghani of absconding with $169 million.

In its final report last week, SIGAR criticized Ghani for refusing to answer its questions directly, instead releasing statements through his attorney. The attorneys answered only six of the 56 questions SIGAR asked about stolen funds.

SIGAR reported that Afghanistan is lacking a lot of money. However, the more outrageous stories of Ghani fleeing with greater cash than any helicopter would lift are dramatic exaggerations.

The allegations that former President Ghani and his senior advisors fled Afghanistan aboard helicopters with millions in cash are unlikely to be true. The hurried nature of their departure, the emphasis on passengers over cargo, the payload and performance limitations of the helicopters, and the consistent alignment in detailed accounts from witnesses on the ground and in the air all suggest that there was little more than $500,000 in cash on board the helicopters.

Despite this, there is still a possibility that substantial amounts of U.S. money were stolen from Afghan government properties in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover. This includes millions of dollars from the Presidential Palace and National Directorate of Security vault. It appears that other funds were also stolen in a number of attempts. SIGAR cannot determine the amount of money stolen by who or what, despite Afghan government records being available and surveillance footage from the last days.

Inspectors from the United States were skeptical about Ghani’s claim that some cash he had in his presidential palace was meant for charitable purposes:

Multiple former senior officials were told that the $5 million found on the palace grounds was the president’s personal money and was declared in his assets. SIGAR asked several former senior officials about the large cash sum. Ghani’s lawyer stated that President Ghani had made public statements about his intention to use his personal money assets to create a foundation for his village, including an Islamic Studies Center and a Presidential Library. However, even his own staff members do not believe this is possible. A former top official stated that $5 million was a large sum of money and that no one would want to keep it in their home. However, Ghani’s answer explains how he will keep the assets liquid but not why he will keep them under his mattress for six years.

SIGAR believed Ghani tried to flee the country with a large bankroll. However, messages from senior Afghan officials indicate that the bags of cash left behind were due to Ghani’s hasty evacuation. It was hard to determine the exact amount involved and whether it all should have been Ghani’s personal property.

SIGAR also noted that Ghani and other top officials fled to Uzbekistan by helicopter, then spent about $120,000 chartering a flight to the UAE. It was impossible that the Uzbeks could have illegally smuggled huge amounts of money through Uzbekistan. They searched every fleeing official and all their employees thoroughly. Uzbekistan’s eyewitnesses reported that the charter flight used a lot of the money carried by the fledgling officials.

The Inspector General’s Report hastened the report to say that although Ghani may not have left Afghanistan with eight figures in cash, there was a lot stolen. Ghani seems to have had a couple million dollars worth of currency, which was likely stolen by the Taliban during its occupation of his Kabul presidential palace. The Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) has a much larger amount.

Former senior officials of the NDS testified that its budget was about $225 million when the Taliban took over. Some accounts said the NDS had at least $70 million in its operating reserve.

This huge sum of cash was apparently necessary as the NDS spent a lot on “anti-Taliban militias”, “local power brokers, and communities.”

Cash payments to these local forces “soared as the country’s provinces fell one by one” to the Taliban blitzkrieg in the summer of 2021, “reaching a crescendo in the government’s final two weeks.”

” We spent a lot to buy and send weapons. We were instructed by the governors to encourage people to support different regions. NDS was not the first organization to work with and support them. One former top official said that we carried lots of money to people like tribal leaders.

SIGAR determined that on the day before Kabul fell, the huge NDS reserve of U.S. dollars “disappeared.” When the Taliban seized control of the NDS vault on August 15, “only a small reserve of Afghanis [local currency] remained.”

The fate of the millions still missing remains unclear. SIGAR was told by some Afghan officials that the Taliban had seized the funds, however these accounts were not confirmed. It was impossible to establish the chain of custody that held the keys to the vault’s literal key. SIGAR noted that the manager who oversaw cash disbursements from the vault was replaced two weeks before the Taliban takeover; a former senior official said such personnel turnovers were a “common method to discretely steal funds amid the chaos,” and testified he himself was pressured to loot his agency’s treasury, with promises of a $20 million payoff if he complied.

“It is possible that large amounts of U.S. money disappeared from

Afghan government properties in chaos after the Taliban takeover, including millions taken from the Presidential Palace and NDS vault. SIGAR found that attempts to steal other funds from the government were common.”

” With surveillance footage from the last days of Taliban rule and Afghan government records, SIGAR cannot determine how much was stolen and by who,” said inspectors.

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