KABUL — Afghan officials said Thursday that they had arrested two former Kabul Bank executives, the first such arrests since its collapse 10 months ago.
According to Rahmatullah Nazari, the deputy attorney general, authorities arrested Sherkhan Farnood, the bank’s former chairman, and Khalilullah Frozi, its former chief executive, on Wednesday in connection with what Nazari said was $900 million in fraudulent loans to bank officers and insiders, many of them politically well-connected.
The arrests were the first in the Kabul Bank affair since exposure of the bank’s huge losses in August. The move is likely to be welcomed by Afghanistan’s international backers, who have held up some aid to Afghanistan until government action is taken on Kabul Bank.
The attorney general also brought charges this week against the governor of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, Abdul Qadir Fitrat, accusing him of taking millions in bribes to overlook the Kabul Bank fraud. Fitrat fled to the U.S. just before the charges were brought, saying he feared for his life because of his own efforts to expose the fraud.
The New York Times
