| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| $1bn fraud at Kabul Bank puts UK's Afghan pull-out in peril |
| 2011-05-22 |
| Coalition plans to pull out of Afghanistan are being hampered by theft and fraud totalling nearly $1bn, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. Hopes of a timely withdrawal of British troops from the region have been dealt a critical blow by revelations about massive bank frauds which have forced donors to suspend vital international aid. The Department for International Development (DfID) confirmed last night that it had followed the lead of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in withholding contributions to bankroll hundreds of "nation-building" projects in Afghanistan. The move, to "protect taxpayers' money", came as the full extent of the scandal at Kabul Bank – described as the biggest fraud in modern times – became clear. A secret US government report into the debacle "indicates that insiders at Kabul Bank used fraudulent loans to misappropriate $850m (£525m), representing 94 per cent of outstanding loans" |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #5 Check for corresponding accounts in Bahrain, Dubai, etc. in the gentlemen's names -- they'll have stashed their ill-gotten gains in somewhere safe, friendly, and not too far away. Then take it all back. Easy peasy. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-05-22 18:00 |
| #4 ...the biggest fraud in modern times ... Not hardly. The trillion dollar bailouts are 1000 times worse. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2011-05-22 09:30 |
| #3 Ditto # and #2. "94 per cent of outstanding loans" they are laughing all the way from the bank. I swear the modern day con artists are everywhere. Fellow went to a small grocery store and offered to purchase it. He said he had to give her a post dated check for thirty days. This was her asking price. He moves in and sells her inventory down and skips town. On his way he test drives a new car. He drove off with it. The dealer gave him the car to test drive but didn't tell him when to bring it back and he didn't sign anything. That then gets complicated for the dealer. |
| Posted by: Dale 2011-05-22 09:15 |
| #2 Another reason to leave Afghanistan now, the pigsty these primitives call home, and let them kill each other as they wish. They revolt me. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2011-05-22 07:58 |
| #1 I'm confused - is that "hope", or is that "change"? |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2011-05-22 05:32 |