It is almost certain that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani did not flee Kabul at the time of the Taliban takeover with millions of dollars stolen, but a smaller sum was taken, according to an official US report accessed on Monday June 6.
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The report of the Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar), which will be released on Tuesday, is an interim document as the office awaits responses to questions sent to Ashraf Ghani. The document, the contents of which were first revealed by the site Politicoincludes interviews with witnesses as well as officials who were in the helicopter with the Afghan leader when he rushed out of Kabul as the Taliban took over the city, on August 15, 2021.
Ashraf Ghani and other officials were accused of stealing up to $169 million belonging to the Afghan government. “Even though the Sigar found that cash had been taken from the palace site (presidential) and loaded into these helicopters, the evidence indicates that this sum did not exceed $1 million, and was possibly closer to $500,000.”, according to the report. Witnesses said they did not see large amounts of cash in the helicopters, which were already overloaded with passengers.
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A sum of $169 million would have represented a block of “nearly two tons” and of a very imposing size, underlined the Sigar, noting that the interviewees said to have seen only light luggage in the helicopters. Conversely, one official was carrying about $200,000, a second $240,000, while others had “5,000 to 10,000 dollars in their pockets”assured a former senior official at Sigar. “Nobody had millions.” “If true, the total cash on board these three helicopters would be approximately $500,000, of which $440,000 belonged to the Afghan government.”says the report.
“The Sigar also identified suspicious circumstances in which approximately $5 million in cash was allegedly left at the presidential palace.”, says the office. The origin and purpose of this money remain to be clarified, “but it would have been distributed among members of the presidential protection service after the departure of the helicopters but before the capture of the palace by the Taliban”, we read again. It seems that there has been “opportunities and attempts to loot the coffers of the Afghan government”according to the report.