occrp.org: In late 2019, SOS International (SOSi), a Virginia-based company with links to the U.S. military and intelligence apparati, obtained exclusive access to various mines across Afghanistan. As part of the deal, Ghani’s family got a little something on the side. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: A number of lawmakers in Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga—the lower house of Parliament–on Wednesday blamed the Afghan government for what they described as systematic corruption and the embezzlement of the national assets of the country. They said that a few government officials are behind all the corruption and embezzlement cases. Click here to read
Tolo News: The Afghan acting minister of finance on Wednesday did not deny claims by lawmakers in Parliament who alleged that $8 million worth of revenue is being embezzled at customs on a daily basis, but he did say there are reports of corruption involving governors, police commanders, employees of the Ministry of Finance as
Tolo News: Kabul residents are accusing Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) of discrimination and say the company is not distributing electricity fairly to its customers in the capital. Kabul residents said DABS is supplying electricity only to palace-dwellers, government officials, and powerful people, not for every home in the remote areas of the city, as
AP: A California man [Saed Ismail Amiri, 38, of Granite Bay] pleaded guilty Tuesday in a scheme to bilk the Afghanistan government out of more than $100 million with a phony bid to build an electric grid, authorities said. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: Afghanistan’s acting finance minister Khalid Payanda said on Thursday that 50 percent of national revenue is being embezzled due to corruption, a lack of capacity and outdated finance system. According to Payanda, reforms will be brought to the current finance system. Click here to read more (external link).
Michael Hughes: The Afghan state will completely collapse if international donors pull funding due to concerns over corruption, which seems to be growing by the day. Predatory Afghan officials – often in league with warlords and transnational criminal organizations – are emptying government coffers as everyone seems to have their attention turned to whether or
Tolo News: According to letters by the civil aviation authority, the Presidential Palace has said that COVID-19 tests should be done by the UAE-based G42-Biogenix in collaboration with the City Laboratory based in Kabul that is owned by Rezwanullah Ahmadzai, an adviser to President Ghani. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Documents seen by TOLO news show that millions of dollars and hundreds of hundreds of kilograms of gold have been smuggled out of Afghanistan. Sources told TOLO news that a number of lawmakers and politicians in collaboration with the government officials are smuggling US cash and gold from Hairatan Port. Click here to
RFE/RL’s Tajik Service March 2, 2021 A high-ranking Afghan politician has found himself at the center of a scandal in Tajikistan involving $15 million in cash and some 90 kilos of gold bars seized from smugglers at the Dushanbe airport in November. Mohammad Mirza Katawazai, the deputy chairman of the Afghan parliament, angrily rejects the