According to The Wall Street Journal, some key Afghan officials and their families spent millions of dollars in the final years of the war on luxurious mansions in the United States and other countries, and when they fled the rising violence in Afghanistan.
Shangri-La Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE, where Hamdullah Mohib, the former National Security Advisor, relocated his family before the fall of the government to the Taliban.
Some officials who held senior roles during former President Ashraf Ghani’s administration, which began in 2014, are now residing in “mansions along California’s coast”, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of public records, interviews, and other evidence.
According to data and interviews, many former officials live in the United Arab Emirates, major European cities, and Turkey.
After seeking to uncover the officials whereabouts, it was discovered that the majority had migrated overseas, particularly in countries where currently accessible property and company information are limited.
Eklil Hakimi’s $2.5 million worth luxury residence in California.
Some former high-ranking government officials who had foreign citizenships and assets, allowed for an easier relocations in their assets outside of Afghanistan, while others spent on new properties and relocated their families abroad as the government collapsed to the Taliban, according to the journal.
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai – Former President of Afghanistan
St. Regis five-star hotel in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where the former Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani temporarily resided with his wife.
After escaping to the UAE, President Ghani initially stayed in a suite with his wife at the five-star St. Regis Hotel in Abu Dhabi. His wife then chose a private villa offered by the Emiratis as their permanent residence.
Foreign officials had alleged Ghani of looting government money, so substantial that not all of it could fit in the chopper when he escaped the presidential palace last year.
Given the helicopter’s space and weight limits, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction stated in an interim report last week that the allegation is “unlikely to be true.”
Hamdullah Mohib – Former National Security Advisor
Before Kabul fell, former President Ghani’s ally, Hamdullah Mohib, the former National Security Advisor, who left with President Ghani, relocated his family to the Shangri-La Hotel in Abu Dhabi, which was paid for by the UAE government.
According to public documents and Mohib himself, the family then relocated to a four-bedroom property in Florida on a beautiful bay bordered with palm trees.