SALON

Friday, Feb 18, 2011 10:16 PM UTC

U.S. sanctions target Afghan money laundering

Karzai government's ability to win public support has been hindered by accusations of bribery and suspicious loans

By

Topics: Afghanistan, Foreign policy, Taliban,

U.S. sanctions target Afghan money launderingHamid Karzai

Stepping up its pressure on corruption in Afghanistan, the United States on Friday sanctioned a major Afghan money-exchange outfit suspected of laundering billions of dollars in drug money.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the New Ansari Money Exchange, which it says is at the center of a network of individuals, money-exchange houses and other businesses operating in Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. officials and others in the international community have been pushing President Hamid Karzai to crack down on corruption in his government and in its financial and business sectors. The near collapse of the Kabul Bank, the nation’s largest private financial institution, because of questionable lending practices, as well as petty bribery schemes throughout the government have hurt the Karzai administration’s efforts to woo the loyalty of the public from the Taliban insurgents.

Between 2007 and 2010, the New Ansari Money Exchange used billions of dollars it transferred in and out of Afghanistan to conceal illicit narcotics proceeds, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement released in Washington. New Ansari transfers money to its Dubai subsidiaries — Green Leaf General Trading LLC and Al Adal Exchange — which then transfer money through U.S. and international financial systems, the statement said.

“Today’s designation is another important step in our ongoing efforts to target money laundering and narcotics trafficking activity in Afghanistan,” said Stuart Levey, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. “We will continue to work to expose the funding and support mechanisms for such illicit activity, and to take actions to safeguard the U.S. and Afghan financial sectors from abuse.”

The issue of corruption puts the U.S in a delicate situation because it doesn’t want to undermine the very Afghan government that it is trying to shore up so that foreign troops can leave the security of the nation to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The groups were sanctioned under the 1999 Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The act targets major foreign drug traffickers, their organizations and associates who act on their behalf. The law prohibits all trade and transactions between designated traffickers and U.S. companies and individuals, and freezes their assets within U.S. jurisdictions. The so-called Kingpin Act doesn’t target the countries in which the designated individuals and companies operate or the countries’ governments.

According to U.S. treasury officials, elements of the New Ansari network have laundered money for Azizullah Alizai and the Haji Juma Khan Organization, both identified as significant foreign narcotics traffickers by the United States in June 2007 and May 2009, respectively. Alizai is a major heroin trafficker and supplier in Southwest Asia and the Middle East while the Haji Juma Khan Organization is an international opium, morphine, and heroin trafficking organization based in the border regions of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Treasury Department statement said.

The sanctions were issued after an investigation by U.S. Treasury Department officials, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Afghan Threat Finance Cell, an interagency center that collects, analyzes and disseminates relevant financial intelligence on individuals and organizations involved in financing the insurgency in Afghanistan.

“The New Ansari network is yet another example of money launderers exploiting legitimate financial systems to launder their ill-gotten gains, including illicit drug proceeds, as part of their criminal enterprise,” said DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart.

“Cash is the ultimate commodity for these criminal networks, and these proceeds often fuel insurgent activity and corruption, while undermining the authority of developing governments.”

The sanctioned individuals include several who play key roles in the New Ansari Money Exchange, including exchange founder Abdullah Barakzai Ansari, manager Mohammad Khan, day-to-day operations manager Mohammad Jan, stakeholder and director Haji Noorullah, Afghan banker Mohammad Rafi Azimi and Mohammad Noor, the manager of New Ansari subsidiaries in Dubai.

Key cash couriers Eissa Jan Abdul Qayoum and Rahmatullah Mohammad Afzal were also sanctioned. Between December 2009 and January 2010, Afzal transferred $94 million from Afghanistan to Dubai for New Ansari, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

Also sanctioned were Ahmad Shah Hakimi and his business, Ahmad Shah Money Exchange, which was used by Hakimi to launder money for New Ansari after it was raided Afghan authorities in January 2010 in Kabul, the department said.

More Deb Riechmann.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 18 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
246 points247 points | 10 comments
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
235 points236 points | 49 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
188 points189 points | 1 comment
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
57 points58 points | 8 comments
vote
Today in How Did I Miss This: Iowa GOP is pushing to cut the pay of the remaining Supreme Court Justices that voted for legalization of gay marriage.
52 points53 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations