{"id":10519,"date":"2022-06-13T22:19:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T22:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=10519"},"modified":"2022-06-13T22:19:58","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T22:19:58","slug":"dostum-noor-and-mohib-among-many-bought-properties-worth-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2022\/06\/dostum-noor-and-mohib-among-many-bought-properties-worth-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"Dostum, Noor and Mohib among others bought properties worth millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – Some senior Afghan officials and their families spent millions purchasing expensive homes in the U.S. and abroad in the final years of the war, which became luxurious landings when they escaped the\u00a0escalating violence in Afghanistan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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According to a Wall Street Journal review of public documents, interviews and other records, some officials who held top jobs during former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani\u2019s tenure, which started in 2014, now are living in mansions along California\u2019s coast. Abroad, clusters of former officials and lawmakers reside in major European cities, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, the records and interviews show.<\/p>\n
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The Journal\u00a0sought to determine the whereabouts\u00a0of dozens of Mr. Ghani\u2019s cabinet officials, influential figures that made up his inner circle, and key lawmakers involved in security and foreign-policy matters. Most\u00a0were found to have relocated overseas, often in countries where publicly available property and company records are limited.<\/p>\n

Their experience contrasts sharply with the tens of thousands of Afghans\u00a0struggling to pay their rent\u00a0in America and\u00a0scattered around the world in encampments and overcrowded housing.<\/p>\n

Some former government officials held foreign citizenships and assets that allowed for smoother relocations in their properties outside Afghanistan, while others invested in new properties and moved their families abroad as the Taliban gained momentum, ultimately\u00a0seizing control of Kabul\u00a0last August. Many of the former Afghan officials said they left because they\u00a0feared retaliation from the Taliban. Still, the handful of top-tier officials\u00a0that stayed behind, including former President Hamid Karzai, have largely been left alone.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ghani has been accused by foreign officials of taking government money when he fled the presidential palace on a Sunday morning in mid-August last year, allowing the Taliban\u00a0to seize Kabul unopposed. Mr. Ghani has denied those allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cReports indicate that President Ghani in fact had so much looted money with him when he fled Afghanistan that not all of it would fit in his helicopter, and that he was forced to leave money lying on the tarmac,\u201d wrote Republican lawmakers James Comer (R., Ky.) and Glenn Grothman (R., Wis.)\u00a0in a letter\u00a0to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year demanding answers.<\/p>\n

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Afghanistan has spiraled into near-universal poverty since the Taliban took over. Under international sanctions, the price of basic goods has surged and drought is worsening food insecurity.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction\u00a0is reviewing those allegations. It said in an interim report last week that tens of millions were likely removed from the presidential palace and National Directorate of Security. It said it didn\u2019t know what had happened to the money, although it raised doubt that much of it made it onto the helicopters because of space and weight limits.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ghani initially resettled in a suite with his wife at the five-star St. Regis Hotel in Abu Dhabi, where he stayed for months while his wife selected a private villa for their permanent residence that was provided by the Emiratis, according to an associate. A spokesman for the U.A.E. said Mr. Ghani and his family were welcomed on humanitarian grounds, along with\u00a0other Afghans fleeing the country.<\/p>\n

U.S. public records offer a window into the lives of some former Afghan officials in America. Among them is Hamdullah Mohib, the ousted president\u2019s closest ally and national-security adviser. Mr. Mohib fled Afghanistan with the president.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mohib has long held close connections to the U.S. His wife is American. He remained a British citizen through his time in office, he said in an interview. Concerned about security and his pregnant wife\u2019s health, Mr. Mohib said he moved his family to the Shangri-La Hotel in Abu Dhabi, paid for by the U.A.E., before Kabul\u2019s fall. The U.A.E. said it also provided those accommodations on humanitarian grounds.<\/p>\n

The family later moved to a four-bedroom home in Florida, on an attractive bay lined with palm trees, according to public records and confirmed by Mr. Mohib. The house is owned by his mother-in-law. His wife owns a small investment property in northeast Washington, D.C., according to public records and confirmed by Mr. Mohib. Mr. Mohib said he owns no property under his name anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the fall of Kabul, a lot of rumors are flying around. I am personally disturbed by it,\u201d Mr. Mohib said in an interview from the U.A.E., where he said the Emiratis have provided him with the use of a villa during his trips there. \u201cI made financial sacrifices to work for the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. property and company records show that Eklil Hakimi, the president\u2019s longtime finance minister and ally, bought at least 10 properties in California, including during Mr. Hakimi\u2019s time in office, and after leaving in 2018.<\/p>\n

After stepping down, Mr. Hakimi and his wife, Sultana Hakimi, transferred eight of those properties to a company called Zala Group in her name at their Laguna Niguel address. His wife is the owner of the company, company records show.<\/p>\n

According to California property records, their property includes\u00a0a five-bedroom home and pool, in a luxury Laguna Niguel community near the beach. It is worth $2.5 million, according to the real-estate company Zillow. In total, the 10 properties are worth more than $10 million. The couple\u2019s latest acquisition, made early this year, was a $1.1 million beachfront South Cove condo in a new development in California, according to Orange County property records.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hakimi couldn\u2019t be reached for comment and didn\u2019t respond to email requests for comment. A woman who answered the door to his Laguna Niguel residence said he wasn\u2019t home and declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan\u2019s last finance minister, Khalid Payenda, owns two properties near Washington, D.C., one of which was bought with cash, Mr. Payenda said. Zillow shows them to be worth more than $1 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a house [that has a mortgage] and a rental do not necessarily mean you do not run into cash-flow problems,\u201d he told the Journal in an email, adding that he temporarily worked as an Uber driver to manage his finances after arriving in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan\u2019s former foreign minister, Hanif Atmar, told the Journal he had tried to talk the president out of fleeing after Mr. Ghani requested his passport, warning him that it would lead to\u00a0the collapse of the government.<\/p>\n

Mr. Atmar said he was shocked to reach the palace the following day with the president\u2019s passports to find Mr. Ghani gone. He called the Turkish foreign minister for help getting out. Turkey ferried several top cabinet officials and their relatives out of the country, and Mr. Atmar said they then headed for properties they owned outside Afghanistan. The Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C., didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The former Afghan vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, is perhaps the country\u2019s most senior former official now in Turkey. A local journalist posted a photo on Twitter that said it showed him receiving a guest at his residence in the expensive gated Or-An community in Ankara. It couldn\u2019t be determined when Mr. Dostum purchased the home, and a spokesman for Mr. Dostum declined to comment.<\/p>\n

A database of Dubai property records reviewed by the Journal contained records for several high-profile former Afghan officials.<\/p>\n

These include Mr. Ghani\u2019s minister of economy, Mustafa Mastoor, who owns a condo in a development on the Dubai Marina, according to Dubai records reviewed by the Journal. Mr. Mastoor said that he purchased the investment before he became minister and that he lives in an apartment purchased in Istanbul months before Afghanistan collapsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing hidden, and that was the only investment that I had in Dubai,\u201d Mr. Mastoor wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

Also in Dubai is the\u00a0former powerful governor\u00a0of Balkh province, Atta Mohammad Noor, who has moved to an apartment he owns, located in an expensive area of Dubai known as \u201cThe Palm,\u201d a group of artificial islands shaped like a palm tree. A spokesman for Mr. Atta said it was the only property that the former governor owns outside Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

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ENDS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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