Kabul: The young woman worked for three years at the Afghan bank, officials say. Then one day she vanished. As did $1.1 million.
Afghan authorities have been scrambling to track down the suspected thief and several alleged accomplices, and an international arrest warrant has been issued.
Still, the revelations are another embarrassment for the banking sector in this country, which has seen corruption already unravel one major institution amid ongoing security threats from militants and criminals.
Shokofa Salehi, 22, worked in the money transfer division at the headquarters of Azizi Bank, a major Afghan lender in Kabul, officials said. She disappeared around two months ago, according to Azizi chief executive Inayatullah Fazli.
Investigators say she is suspected of transferring some $1.1 million out of the bank's coffers to accounts of relatives. Besides Salehi, at least nine people are believed involved in the case.
“They are a mafia group,” Fazli alleged.
An Interpol red notice—the equivalent of an international arrest warrant—describes authorities as seeking Salehi on charges of fraud and misusing her authority.
Afghan officials believe Salehi used fake documents under the name Samira to reach India after transferring the money; her current whereabouts are unknown.
Two suspects in the case have been detained in Dubai, senior Afghan police official Gen. Aminullah Amarkhail said, adding that he's in touch with counterparts in Dubai and India for help tracking down Salehi and other suspects.
He said one suspect is alleged to have spent some $850,000 of the money to invest in a tire business and possibly other ventures in Dubai.
Amarkhail said Salehi's parents were among the suspects, and are believed to have returned to Kabul after going with her to India. Another top police official, Mohammad Zahir, said investigators were still seeking the parents.
Azizi Bank's website says it began operating in 2006, and that it now has “a 1,500-plus strong team of employees and with a 20 percent female work force is playing a quiet but effective role in women(‘s) emancipation and empowerment.” It also calls itself “the bank you can trust.”
As striking as it is, Salehi's alleged pilfering pales in comparison to some other examples of corruption in Afghanistan's banking sector.
