Afghanistan's Ex-president Judged Unlikely To Get Out Of Kabul With $169 Million, US Watchdog: Weighs Nearly Two Tonnes

Ashraf Ghani. (Wikimedia Commons / Tasnim News Agency / Meghdad Madadi)

JAKARTA - Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is said to have almost certainly not fled Kabul when the Taliban entered the city in mid-August 2021, with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, a US government watchdog report said.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report, due to be published on Tuesday, is an interim document, as the office is still awaiting answers to questions sent to Ghani.

First reported by Politico, it interviewed witnesses as well as officials who were in a helicopter convoy with Ghani, as they hastily fled the Presidential Palace in Kabul, while the Taliban marched into the capital on August 15, 2021.

In the days that followed, several reports said Ghani and other officials took up to $169 million in Afghan government money with them. Ghani has always vehemently denied these claims.

"Although SIGAR found that some cash was taken from the palace grounds and loaded onto these helicopters, evidence suggests that this amount did not exceed US$1 million and was probably closer to USD 500.000 in value," the report said.

This is based on a very heavy assessment of interviews with witnesses and officials involved, all of whom said they saw no sign of large amounts of cash, while the helicopters were already overloaded with people fleeing.

"The $169 million in one hundred dollars, stacked end to end, will form a block 2.3m long, 90cm wide and 90cm high. The block will weigh nearly 2 tons," SIGAR said, adding witnesses reported 'minimal suitcase' in helicopters that have no cargo space.

Instead, one official carried around USD 200.000, another carried around USD 240.000, the rest had USD 5.000 to USD 10.000 in their pockets. Nobody has millions," a former senior official told SIGAR.

"If true, the total amount of cash on board the three helicopters is about $500.000, with $440.000 belonging to the Afghan government," the report said.

"SIGAR also identified suspicious circumstances, in which approximately $5 million in cash was allegedly left at the presidential palace," the report added.

It was not clear where the money came from or what it was for, "but it was supposed to be shared by members of the Presidential Protection Service after the helicopter departed but before the Taliban seized the palace", he said.

The report also said there appeared to be "many opportunities and attempts to loot the coffers of the Afghan government".

However, the watchdog added, "it does not have enough evidence to determine with certainty whether hundreds of millions of US dollars were removed from the country by Afghan officials, when the government collapsed or whether any stolen money was provided by the United States."