The content of a regulatory report indicates that contrary to rumors, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his top advisers may have fled Afghanistan without the millions of dollars of money that disappeared during the Taliban occupation.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, CBS News wrote: With government records in Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban, it may be difficult to find a definitive culprit for the money being lost.
A report released by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has concluded that at the time of the fall of the Kabul government last summer, Ashraf Ghani and his advisers may have taken about $ 500,000 by helicopter as they left the country, but that amount has not exceeded $ 1 million.
This is far less than the $ 5 million that has disappeared from the Afghan presidential palace and the tens of millions of dollars that have disappeared from the treasury of the National Security Agency during the chaos caused by the Taliban.
These are the findings of the SIGAR Report on the theft of money from Afghanistan, while the final report on this issue is expected to be presented after further interviews by the Inspector General. However, the report says it is difficult to determine who stole the millions of dollars in Afghanistan, as government records and security oversight are now in the hands of the Taliban.
In more than 30 interviews with former Afghan officials, the inspector general denied that Ashraf Ghani was responsible for the theft because he and his advisers focused on getting out quickly with more people than the helicopters could handle.
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The Russian embassy in Kabul had previously accused Ashraf Ghani and his adviser of taking $ 169 million in flight from Afghanistan. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction in the United States concluded that this is unlikely due to the space and weight of this amount of cash.
The report estimated that $ 169 million in 100-dollar bills piled up “is somewhat larger than a standard American three-seater sofa and weighs nearly two tons.”
According to the report, the Afghan presidential helicopters were too full of passengers and fuel to be able to accommodate additional cargo, especially two-ton cargo.
As the Taliban rapidly approached Kabul, Ashraf Ghani’s team focused on escaping and saving their lives.
According to reports, their decision to flee was so sudden that Ashraf Ghani was barefoot, forcing an official to look for his shoes, and Ghani did not even get a chance to find his passport before leaving.
Ghani had arranged for his wife, Rula Ghani, the former first lady of Afghanistan, to leave the country with senior officials, but the situation worsened for the former Afghan president as the security team prepared. According to the report, the head of the Afghan presidential security team warned the national security adviser that if the helicopters left Ghani, “the president will be killed.”