Last week, Ashraf Ghani vehemently rejected accusations that he left Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates with a huge amount of cash as a “baseless lie”.
US House Oversight Committee Republicans have urged Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland to investigate media reports that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled his country last week with over $169 million in US taxpayer money.
In letters to the AG and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, James Comer and Glenn Grothman stressed that the Biden administration “must do everything in its power to seize any illicitly gained funds that were corruptly embezzled by President Ghani”.
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani attends a security meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan August 14, 2021
The two also insisted that the Afghan president’s actions “likely” sped up the Taliban”s* takeover of the country, resulting in the “chaotic situation now faced by American citizens and our allies”.
The letters come a week after Ghani, who is currently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), declared that he intends to return to Afghanistan in the near future in order to provide “justice” for all Afghan nationals.
‘Four Cars Full of Money’
Reports of Ghani having fled Afghanistan with millions in cash emerged as Nikita Ishenko, a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy previously told Sputnik that the Afghan president had departed with four cars filled to the brim with money.
Follow-up reports alleged that the dollar amount Ghani escaped with was upwards of $169 million, a figure which, however, was never confirmed.
Ghani later rejected what he described as the “unsubstantiated and untrue accusations” related to him fleeing with vast sums of money, arguing that he was in such a rush he was even forced to leave behind some confidential documents.
His whereabouts were unknown until last Wednesday, with speculation swirling that he had fled to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, or Oman. On 18 August, the UAE’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Ghani and his family were allowed entry into the Middle Eastern nation on “humanitarian grounds”. However, the brief release did not offer specifics on any asylum conditions that may have been raised or Ghani’s exact location in the UAE.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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