Khalilzad, wife facing money laundering probe
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WASHINGTON: Authorities in Austria are investigating a former American ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, for suspected money laundering through his wife’s bank account, the US media reported on Monday.
On Monday, an Austrian State prosecutor, Thomas Vecsey, confirmed the investigation — first revealed by an Austrian magazine Profil — but declined to give details.
The money allegedly came from oil and building deals in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, which violated US law.
Reports in the US media claimed that Mr Khalilzad transferred about $1.5 million in May 2013 to his wife Cheryl Benard’s account in Vienna, Austria.
Documents pointing to the transfer were found in a garbage container used by the state prosecutor’s office in Vienna, the magazine reported.
Austrian authorities have frozen Ms Benard’s account.
Mr Khalilzad, 63, was US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN in the George W. Bush administration.
Ms Benard’s lawyer, Holger Bielesz, said that US authorities had yet to express “reasonable grounds for suspicions”.
The former diplomat heads a business consulting firm called Khalilzad Associates, based in Washington. The firm focuses on business in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2005, Mr Khalilzad oversaw Afghanistan’s first elections and was a close adviser to President Hamid Karzai. His wife heads a non-profit research group in Washington, which supports cultural activism in former war zones.
Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2014
