SIGAR: Ashraf Ghani did not steal money

As revealed by an investigation by a special agency of the U.S. government, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani did not steal millions of dollars.

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The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) — the U.S. government’s oversight body for Afghanistan reconstruction — reported in its recent report that claims that former President Ghani and his senior advisors fled Afghanistan on helicopters with millions of dollars in cash are unlikely to be true.

The report is based on responses from Ghani himself, as well as officials who accompanied him during his escape and other witnesses.

It was previously claimed that Ashraf Ghani and senior officials of his government took 169 million dollars with them when they fled Afghanistan.

According to the SIGAR report, “a certain amount of cash was taken from the presidential palace and loaded onto these helicopters. Evidence suggests that this amount did not exceed 1 million dollars and was possibly closer to 500,000 dollars.”

One former SIGAR employee confirmed that one of the officials had 200,000 dollars, another had 240,000 dollars, and others had between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars. No one had millions of dollars with them.

According to the SIGAR report, approximately 5 million dollars in cash was allegedly left in the presidential palace. It is presumed that this money was divided among the president’s security staff after the helicopters took off, but before the Taliban seized the palace.

Previously, Ghani himself repeatedly denied that he stole millions of dollars from his country, but the public and opposition accused him of stealing large sums of cash.