"WASHINGTON -- Some senior Afghan officials and their families spent millions of dollars purchasing expensive homes in the U.S. and abroad in the final years of the war, which became luxurious landings when they escaped the escalating violence in Afghanistan.
According to a Wall Street Journal review of public documents, interviews and other records, some officials who held top jobs during former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani's tenure, which started in 2014, now are living in mansions along California's coast. Abroad, clusters of former officials and lawmakers reside in major European cities, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, the records and interviews show.
The Journal sought to determine the whereabouts of dozens of Mr. Ghani's cabinet officials, influential figures that made up his inner circle, and key lawmakers involved in security and foreign-policy matters. Most were found to have relocated overseas, often in countries where publicly available property and company records are limited.
Their experience contrasts with the tens of thousands of Afghans struggling to pay rent in America and scattered world-wide in encampments and overcrowded housing.
Some former government officials held foreign citizenships and assets that allowed for smoother relocations in their properties outside Afghanistan, while others invested in new properties and moved their families abroad as the Taliban gained momentum, ultimately seizing control of Kabul in August. Many of the former Afghan officials said they left because they feared retaliation from the Taliban. Still, the handful of top-tier officials that stayed behind, including former President Hamid Karzai, have largely been left alone.
Foreign officials have accused Mr. Ghani of taking government money when he fled the presidential palace, allowing the Taliban to seize Kabul unopposed. He has denied those allegations.
"Reports indicate that President Ghani in fact had so much looted money with him when he fled Afghanistan that not all of it would fit in his helicopter, and that he was forced to leave money lying on the tarmac," wrote Republican lawmakers James Comer (R., Ky.) and Glenn Grothman (R., Wis.) in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year demanding answers.
The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction is reviewing those allegations. It said in an interim report last week that tens of millions were likely removed from the presidential palace and National Directorate of Security. It said it didn't know what had happened to the money, although it raised doubt that much of it made it onto the helicopters because of space and weight limits.
Mr. Ghani initially resettled in a suite with his wife at the five-star St. Regis Hotel in Abu Dhabi, where he stayed for months while his wife selected a private villa for their permanent residence that was provided by the Emiratis, an associate said. A spokesman for the U.A.E. said Mr. Ghani and his family were welcomed on humanitarian grounds, along with other Afghans fleeing the country.
U.S. property and company records show that Eklil Hakimi, the president's longtime finance minister and ally, bought at least 10 properties in California, including during Mr. Hakimi's time in office, and after leaving in 2018.
After stepping down, Mr. Hakimi and his wife, Sultana Hakimi, transferred eight of those properties to a company called Zala Group in her name at their Laguna Niguel address. His wife is the owner of the company, company records show.
According to California property records, their property includes a five-bedroom home and pool, in a luxury Laguna Niguel community near the beach. It is worth $2.5 million, according to the real-estate company Zillow. In total, the 10 properties are worth more than $10 million. The couple's latest acquisition, made early this year, was a $1.1 million beachfront South Cove condo in a new development in California, according to Orange County property records.
Mr. Hakimi couldn't be reached for comment and didn't respond to email requests to comment. A woman who answered the door to his Laguna Niguel residence said he wasn't home and declined to comment further.
The former finance minister, Khalid Payenda, owns two properties near Washington, D.C., one of which was bought with cash, Mr. Payenda said. Zillow shows them to be worth more than $1 million.
"Having a house [that has a mortgage] and a rental do not necessarily mean you do not run into cash-flow problems," he told the Journal in an email, adding that he temporarily worked as an Uber driver to manage his finances after arriving in the U.S.
Afghanistan's former foreign minister, Hanif Atmar, told the Journal he had tried to talk the president out of fleeing after Mr. Ghani requested his passport, warning him that it would lead to the collapse of the government.
Mr. Atmar said he was shocked to reach the palace the following day with the president's passports to find Mr. Ghani gone. He called the Turkish foreign minister for help getting out. Turkey ferried several top cabinet officials and their relatives out of the country, and Mr. Atmar said they then headed for properties they owned outside Afghanistan. The Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., didn't respond to a request to comment.
The former vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, is perhaps the country's most senior former official now in Turkey. A local journalist posted a photo on Twitter that said it showed him receiving a guest at his residence in the expensive gated Or-An community in Ankara. It couldn't be determined when Mr. Dostum purchased the home, and a spokesman for Mr. Dostum declined to comment.
A database of Dubai property records reviewed by the Journal contained records for several high-profile former Afghan officials. These include Mr. Ghani's minister of economy, Mustafa Mastoor, who owns a condo in a development on the Dubai Marina, according to Dubai records reviewed by the Journal. Mr. Mastoor said he purchased the investment before he became minister and that he lives in an apartment purchased in Istanbul months before Afghanistan collapsed.
"There was nothing hidden, and that was the only investment that I had in Dubai," Mr. Mastoor wrote in an email.
Also in Dubai is the former governor of Balkh province, Atta Mohammad Noor, who has moved to an apartment he owns, located in an expensive area of Dubai known as "The Palm." A spokesman for Mr. Atta said it was the only property that the former governor owns outside Afghanistan.
Presidential Adviser, His Family Go to Florida
U.S. public records offer a window into the lives of some former Afghan officials in America. Among them is Hamdullah Mohib, the ousted president's closest ally and national security adviser. Mr. Mohib fled Afghanistan with the president.
Mr. Mohib, whose wife is American, has long held close connections to the U.S. He remained a British citizen through his time in office, he said in an interview.
Concerned about security and his pregnant wife's health, Mr. Mohib said he moved his family to the Shangri-La Hotel in Abu Dhabi, paid for by the U.A.E., before Kabul's fall in August. The U.A.E. said it provided those accommodations on humanitarian grounds.
The family later moved to a four-bedroom home on a palm-tree bay lined in Florida, according to public records, and confirmed by Mr. Mohib. The house is owned by his mother-in-law. His wife owns a small investment property in northeast Washington, D.C., showed public records, and confirmed by Mr. Mohib.
He said he owns no property under his name anywhere in the world.
"Since the fall of Kabul, a lot of rumors are flying around. I am personally disturbed by it," Mr. Mohib said in an interview from the U.A.E., where he said the Emiratis have provided him with the use of a villa during his trips there. "I made financial sacrifices to work for the government."" [1]
After loosing, money are too heavy for the helicopters? Good life out there for actors like Mr. Zelensky and his friends.
1. World News: Afghan Officials Fled to Luxury Abroad --- Senior figures bought expensive homes in U.S., elsewhere in final years of lengthy war
Donati, Jessica.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 14 June 2022: A.20.
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