‘Karzai kin occupy £90m Gulf empire’
Sept. 11: Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s close relatives and associates either own or occupy 12 expensive homes in the Gulf valued at £90 million, raising fears that western aid money sent to the war-torn country is being misused, a media report claimed on Saturday.
The Daily Telegraph reported that 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 and Farnood, 46 occupy a “Signature” villa valued at up to £4 million. Other properties either owned or occupied by the Afghan President’s aides are valued between £3 million and £1 million, the daily reported.
Mahmoud also made a £500,000 profit following the sale of a Dubai bought with a loan from Kabul Bank. “The family of Hamid Karzai 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,” it said.
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.
Post new comment