Afghanistan issues arrest warrant for central bank’s former governor

Abdul Qadir Fitrat, who has fled to the US, denies claims he failed to act on warnings about corruption at Kabul Bank The former governor of the Afghan central bank who fled Afghanistan will be prosecuted over the failure of the country’s largest private lender, the attorney general’s office in Kabul said on Tuesday. Abdul Qadir Fitrat and other officials at the bank face prosecution for not acting on warnings about corruption at Kabul Bank, which nearly collapsed last year because of mismanagement and questionable lending practices, said General Rahmatullah Nazari, the deputy attorney general. He told reporters that an arrest warrant for Fitrat has been sent to Interpol and the US embassy in the Afghan capital. Kabul Bank – now under the control of the central bank – has become a symbol of the country’s cronyism and corruption. The lender is now considered a bellwether on attempts to root out patronage and show accountability to world financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund. The deputy attorney general said that Fitrat received several warnings from the country’s intelligence service and anti-corruption officials about widespread irregularities at Kabul Bank. “Instead, he wrote to the anti-corruption body that Kabul Bank was moving in the right course and that the bank was not facing any financial threats – that there was no crisis to be worried about,” Nazari said. “It, in itself, indicates involvement of the central bank governor with Kabul Bank authorities in the crisis. He did not take any precautionary steps.” On Monday, Fitrat told Associated Press in a phone call from Virginia that he resigned and fled to the US because threats had been made on his life. He said the Karzai government in Kabul was refusing to charge those involved in fraudulent loans. “My life has become completely endangered,” Fitrat said. “Since I exposed the fraudulent practices on 27 April in parliament I have received information about threats on my life.” He said he has permanent resident status in the US and would not return to Afghanistan. Afghanistan United States Banking guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.