Tracking the fraud

Are we seeing the end of the tunnel in the Kabul Bank case? The scam broke in 2010 to reveal a web of improper loans to Kabul’s ruling elite including Mahmoud Karzai, some parliament members,

Are we seeing the end of the tunnel in the Kabul Bank case? The scam broke in 2010 to reveal a web of improper loans to Kabul’s ruling elite including Mahmoud Karzai, some parliament members, warlords and cabinet ministers? Esmatullah Mayer takes stock.
Deputy Attorney General (AG) Rahmatullah Nazari announced in June that the dossiers of 35 accused people in the Kabul Bank case have been completed and sent to the court.  
Prosecutors have been sending summons to the accused in the case. On Nov 14, the special court investigated the dossiers of three accused people in Kabul. Three days later two more accused were summoned to defend themselves in court.
Masood Musa Ghazi, the new Kabul Bank chairman, has been accused of transferring 5 million dollars when he was chairman of the bank. He rejected the charge as baseless and said that the money was withdrawn from the bank on Aug 30, 2010, while he was still working at the central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB).
Ghazi became chairman after Sherkhan Farnood who along with the bank’s chief executive Khaililullah Frouzi were the first to be arrested for using fake names, forged documents and fictitious companies to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to top Afghan officials. The government had to step in to save the bank.
Ghazi is quoted saying, “The transfer of 5.8 million dollars has not taken place in one deal. Rather the money has been transferred at different times starting from Aug 30, 2010.” 
Ghazi further told that he was deputy head of the Bank and had submitted his resignation to DAB on Aug 30. He added that Aug 30 was his last day with Kabul Bank.
Muhibullah Safi, deputy head of DAB, was the second suspect present in the court in the Kabul Bank case. Safi rejected the accusation, and said: “There is no document in my three years’ work as deputy head of the bank, to show that I may have gone to the president’s  office, vice presidents’ offices, National Assembly, Parliament or to cabinet to give them the report which bank is in good condition and which bank is in bad condition. You can ask them whether I have cheated them or not.”
Qadeer Fetrat, the former head of Afghanistan’s central bank, has fled to the US. President Karzai had ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bring him back.
Prosecutors are questioning 22 accused in the case which started on Nov 14. Head of Kabul Bank Special Court Shamsul Rahman Shams said Sherkhan Farnood and deputy head Frouzi were the main accused. After the two traded charges in the courtroom, Shams said they were co-accused, and “now they are blaming each other.”
Both have dismissed the prosecutions charges as “baseless”. Frouzi said, “The accusations that you have set against me are all wrong. An amount of 575 million USD has been given as loan. You accused me that there is 911 million USDembezzlement. If I have perpetrated the embezzlement you have not arrested any of my partners. I named them … they are the partners of my embezzlement but you have acquitted them.”
Farnood said the two who should be standing trial are Hussain Fahim, the brother of the first vice president, and Mahmoud Karzai, the president’s brother.He said the president himself was involved in the Kabul Bank fraud, which was a blow for the confidence of Afghanistan’s financial system, and caused the lapse of the International Monetary Fund’s line of credit. The Karzai government stepped into to take over the bank and protect its customers.