Ex-Afghan president Ghani unlikely to have fled with millions in cash: US Watchdog

A US government watchdog said on Monday that Ashraf Ghani, former Aghanistan president almost certainly did not flee the country with millions in cash. It was reported in media after Taliban seized power in Afghanistan that Ghani fled with huge amount of cash just before Taliban toppled his regime.

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

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

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Multiple media reports suggested in the subsequent days that Ghani and other official took about USD 169 million of Afghan government's money as they fled. These claims have been fiercely denied by Ghani.

"Although SIGAR found that some cash was taken from the grounds of the palace and loaded onto these helicopters, evidence indicates that this number did not exceed $1 million and may have been closer in value to $500,000," the report states.

The report makes the assertion based on interviews of witnesses and officials. All of them reportedly said that there were no signs of such large amounts of cash. The helicopters, according to them, were already overloaded with people fleeing for their lives.

"$169 million in hundred dollar bills, stacked end to end, would form a block 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet tall... This block would have weighed 3,722 pounds, or nearly two tons," SIGAR noted, adding that witnesses reported "minimal luggage" on the helicopters, which had no cargo holds.

Instead one official carried around $200,000, another carried some $240,000 and others had "$5,000 to $10,000 in their pockets... No one had millions," one former senior official told SIGAR.

"If true, this puts the total amount of cash on board the three helicopters at approximately $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 behind at the presidential palace," the report added.

It was not clear where the money came from or what it was for, "but it was supposedly divided by members of the Presidential Protective Service after the helicopters departed but before the Taliban captured the palace," it said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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