The Karzai empire, villas in Dubai and fears over Afghan aid
The family of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has been linked to more than
a dozen expensive homes in the Gulf, raising fears that Western aid money
sent to Afghanistan is being misused.
Image 1 of 3
The centrepiece of the holdings is a portfolio of 14 villas on the Palm
Jumeirah Photo: GOOGLE EARTH
Image 1 of 3
Mahmoud Karzai, President Karzai?s brother and the third-largest
shareholder in Kabul Bank Photo: DUNCAN CHARD
Image 1 of 3
The house bought and sold by Mahmoud Karzai in Dubai Photo: DUNCAN
CHARD
By Richard Spencer in Dubai, James Kirkup and Damien McElroy
9:00PM BST 10 Sep 2010
The Daily Telegraph today reveals a property empire in Dubai
assembled at a cost of £90 million that is owned or occupied by close
relatives and associates of Mr Karzai.
The property holdings emerged as Mr Karzai, who leads one of the world’s
poorest and most deprived countries, has struggled to salvage Afghanistan's
biggest private bank, Kabul Bank, which bankrolled the purchases.
The centrepiece of the holdings is a portfolio of 14 villas on the Palm
Jumeirah, Dubai’s showpiece property development, registered in the name of
Sher Khan Farnood, the former chairman of Kabul Bank. Kabul Bank also owns
an apartment, two business plots and a loss-making airline, Pamir Airlines,
in Dubai.
Mahmoud Karzai, President Karzai’s brother and the third-largest shareholder
in the bank, like Mr Farnood, 46, occupies a “Signature” villa valued at up
to £4 million. Other properties are valued between £3 million and £1 million.
He also made a £500,000 profit following the sale of a Dubai bought with a
loan from Kabul Bank.
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Mahmoud Karzai is not the only member of an Afghan political family living in
villas distributed across the development where David Beckham, Michael
Schumacher, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also owners.
Haseen Fahim, another Kabul shareholder and the brother of the ex-warlord
vice-president, Mohammed Qasim Fahim, lives nearby.
Senior British government ministers are privately furious that Kabul Bank has
been used to buy property in the Gulf.
Ministers will not directly comment on the Karzai family over its business
interests, but MPs said the apparent corruption in Kabul is undermining
Western attempts to stabilise the country.
Adam Holloway, a Conservative member of the Commons defence committee, said:
“A lot of people have become very rich on money that was supposed to help
Afghanistan.”
The Afghan government relies on international aid to provide more than half of
the revenues it uses to finance public sector wages. President Karzai
ordered that all salaries of 250,000 government employees, including
teachers, medical workers and security forces, would be paid by direct debit
to accounts with Kabul Bank two years after it was established in 2006.
Mr Farnood occupies a grand villa adorned at the front with statues of Roman
legionaries, manicured lawns on all sides, a sweeping beachfront and a
swimming pool in the back garden.
A Mercedes SUV sits in the driveway.
His current status is unclear. The poker-playing former exile resigned last
week under orders to hand back the Dubai properties but he has not been
charged with any offence.
Kabul Bank, which runs the payroll for Nato-backed security forces, has been
deserted by thousands of depositors since the country’s Central Bank
launched an investigation.
For his part Mr Karzai is thinking of moving on from the villa because his
children have gone abroad to study and he is highly critical of his former
partner’s failure to avoid the pitfalls of the boom. “The property here in
Dubai was another big mistake. Sher Khan did it single-handedly. The thing
is, he’s not sophisticated enough for today’s global economy,” he said.
There could be worse to come, he added, pointing to the still unvalued cost of
the investment in Pamir Airlines and other ventures. “These two were running
the bank,” he said. “They made risky investments, lending over the limit...
it was hopeless.”
.at15t_email { display: none ! important; }ul li.email span.at300bs {
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}http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/dubai/7994754/The-Karzai-empire-villas-in-Dubai-and-fears-over-Afghan-aid.html
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