The Magnitsky Act (subject of our last post) turned out to be very useful in seizing assets, just as intended by Team Death Cult. A great tool, Very Handy, depending on who wields it.
Let's peek at the OFAC list. Here's one example from 12/11/2023. Ajmal Rahmani, his father Mir Rahman Rahmani, and roughly four dozen related companies were added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.
The same day, 12/11/23, Kabul Now reports a detailed story: US sanctions Afghan political family at the heart of decades of corruption.
We learn that OFAC sanctions former speaker of Afghan parliament and his son on charges of transnational corruption and embezzlement. (TCOs. Know thy enemy.) They are barred from making financial transactions, and their assets are subject to confiscation.
The Rahmani family was one of the largest contractors of the US Army and the former government of Afghanistan. During the two decades of international involvement in Afghanistan, the Rahmanis were awarded contracts to procure fuel for the Afghanistan Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF), the funding for which came directly from the US Government. The US Government says the Rahmanis engaged in tactics to rig the bidding process and inflate fuel prices. In 2014, the Rahmanis and other companies involved in fuel business colluded to drive up prices in the US-funded contracts for as much as $200 million.
- Procuring fuel for the military? Yes.
- Colluding with others to drive up prices in US-funded contracts? Yes.
- Stealing our tax dollars? Yes.
They also massively under-delivered on the over-priced fuel contracts, and imported staggering amounts of tax-free fuel by bribing customs officials and forging documents, and then sold it privately.
In addition to the Rahmanis and their holdings in Afghanistan, the OFAC sanctions cover dozens of foreign companies in Europe, the Middle East, and Austria, believed to be tied to the family. Among them are 23 German, eight Cypriot, six Emirati, two Austrian, one Dutch and one Bulgarian company.
More from the Kabul Now story (links removed):
We were able to locate at least one legal entity in the United States that is linked to Ajmal Rahmani. The Afghanistan-US Democratic Peace and Prosperity Council [DPPC] is a U.S. non-profit registered in March 2020 in Delaware. According to its website [DEFUNCT WEBSITE is thedppc.com - Ed.], it is led by ‘reformers in Afghanistan’s Parliament-in-exile and Afghan-Americans who believe strongly in the benefits of an alliance between the people of Afghanistan and America.”
According to information released by the U.S. Department of Justice, the organization declared at the time of its incorporation that it was financed by Ajmal Rahmani and controlled by a man named Martin Rahmani who is listed as its Executive Director. Martin Amin Rahmani is an American citizen who is a partner at Victory Six Advisors, a consulting firm based in Washington D.C. The address listed for the council and Victory Six Advisors are the same, 800 Maine Ave, SW, Washington, DC.
In April 2021, the interesting Foreign Lobby Report published this update:
Afghanistan: Jake Perry + Partners distributed a white paper on behalf of the nonprofit Afghanistan-U.S. Democratic Peace and Prosperity Council (DPPC) regarding a notification from US Army Contracting Command for the purchase of bulk ground fuel for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. The report [white paper - ed.] raises allegations of illegal activities by the Afghan forces and recommends that the US turn to “legitimate and qualified” businesses in Afghanistan. The council is funded by an Afghan businessman, Mohammad Gul Raoufi. Jake Perry is a former top adviser to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). His is one of four firms registered to lobby for the council.
“The DPPC strongly recommends that the U.S. Army Contracting Command limits its engagement on the Bulk Ground Fuel contract to companies that are rigorously vetted, have a demonstrated ability to and history of consistently and reliably performing the scope of work and are committed to a contracting process free from corruption and illegality,” the white paper states. The council is headed by executive director Martin Rahmani in Washington. Three Afghan lawmakers sit on its advisory board: Mir Haider Afzaly, Naheed Farid and Haji Ajmal Rahmani.
Recap: Several years before landing on the Treasury's SDN list for massive corruption, the Rahmani-controlled DPPC gets a uniparty lobbyist group (source: Open Secrets) to disseminate a white paper for them bemoaning the terrible corruption plaguing bulk fuel contracts in Afghanistan (PROBLEM). The paper recommend sticking with "rigorously vetted" companies (SOLUTION).
TO BE CLEAR, the white paper goes into some detail about the difficulty and challenges of performing in Afghanistan. These contracts pose a practically irresistible challenge: so much fuel... extreme logistical difficulties... little oversight... all backed by US taxpayers. In fact, the chaotic environment provides so many excuses for failure that corrupt people are drawn to it like moths to a flame.
One can extrapolate which rigorously vetted companies, exactly, the DPPC might recommend. Except they don't suggest any, because they only want to provide good lives for the People of Afghanistan.
DPPC EXISTS TO PROMOTE: ...policies and initiatives that better the lives of the Afghan people and hold the Afghan government accountable to provide basic services, protect human rights, adhere to democratic principles, and put an end to corruption. Our interest in the Bulk Ground Fuel contract is to promote anti-corruption efforts and peace in Afghanistan by ensuring that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) maintains its operational capabilities and readiness through an adequate supply of fuel. Having a strong, capable and ready ANDSF means a sustainable peace in the country and prosperity for the people of Afghanistan who have suffered without for so long.
A NEVER-ENDING ADEQUATE SUPPLY OF FUEL PAID FOR BY US TAXPAYERS MEANS PEACE AND PROSPERITY FOR THE LONG-SUFFERING PEOPLE OF AFGHANISTAN, or so the theory goes.
Isn't that nice? It's so nice. A staggering amount of fuel has already been supplied. Inexplicably, still no peace and prosperity. It's just a never-ending gravy train for some, and never-ending misery for others.
Also see: linkages back to their comrades in Washington.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Along the way with these stories percolating on the back burners, some global villager might have got a garlicky whiff and asked xymself or xyrself, "Uhh, who is Ajmal Rahmani anyway? Is he the lucky guy whose family grew very wealthy during the decades of War in Afghanistan?"
The Death Cult presciently anticipated these questions. And the answer is NO. Wrong guy. Ajmal is not lucky.
This is just one of dozens of this same story about poor Ajmal and his family, with this specific touching photo.
Ajmal the Refugee
The story circulated widely in EARLY 2022, almost two years before Ajmal appeared on the SDN list. It's almost like they knew he would eventually come into the spotlight in a bad way (due to the massive history of decades-long corruption), so they knit together this flimsy media blanket and threw it out there.
After leaving Afghanistan a year ago, Ajmal Rahmani believed he had found a haven of peace in Ukraine. This week, he and his family had to flee again -- this time to Poland to the sounds of Russian bombs. "I run from one war, come to another country and another war starts. Very bad luck," Rahmani told AFP shortly after crossing into Poland.
So this would be three years ago (2021) that he fled to Ukraine, then fled again to Poland, to the sound of Russian bombs of course. The family had to walk the last 19 miles, if you can believe that.
Rahmani, who is in his 40s, said he worked for NATO in Afghanistan for 18 years at Kabul airport.
Before that "I had a good life in Afghanistan, I had a private house, I had a private car, I had a good salary," said Rahmani. "I sold my car, my house, my everything. I lost everything," he said. But he added: "nothing is better than my love, than my family life".
Rahmani said he struggled to get a visa to leave Afghanistan and decided to go to Ukraine because it was the only country that would take him in. They set up home in Odessa -- a Black Sea port city. Four days ago, when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, they had to leave everything again and travelled the 1,110 kilometres to the border.
He decided to leave the country four months before the US withdrawal because he received threats and was so scared he kept his children out of school.
The family came to public light in 2018 after both the father and son ran in parliamentary elections. Many observers noted at the time the influx of businessmen turned politicians in the electoral race, which brought about a parliament driven by personal interest and corruption. The election was considered one of the most fraudulent contests in the country’s short history of fragile flirtation with democratic ideas. The Rahmanis not only made it to the house, but the father soon became the speaker in a process that was believed to be corrupt. OFAC now confirms those suspicions, reporting that Rahmani paid millions of dollars to other parliament members to secure their vote in the house. According to OFAC, Ajmal Rahmani, the son, paid at least $1.6 million to members of the election commission to win a seat in the elections.
According to our information, Mr. Rahmani, the father, resides in Turkey, where he has major business holdings. Social media pictures also show him at COP28, the annual UN conference on climate change that is ongoing in Dubai, the UAE. His son, Ajmal Rahmani, has lived mostly in Germany since leaving Afghanistan after the Taliban’s return to power in the summer of 2021.
According to German media, the municipality of Ehningen in southwest Germany has halted the development of a project owned by the Rahmani family.
As per the German media report by Taz, The Ocean Group, intended to build a residential complex in partnership with its German partners in the village of “Quantum” in Ehningen.
The Ocean Group is owned by Ajmal Rahmani, the son of Mir Rahman Rahmani. Mir Rahman Rahmani was the Speaker before August 2021 in the Afghan House of Representatives, and his son, Ajmal Rahmani, was a member.
Trouble in Ehningen... (translated, image accompanies article)
US sanctions against Rahmani empire: Because of corruption allegations against the investor, the future is now unclear, not only of the quantum laboratory in Ehningen, whose sponsors include IBM and the Fraunhofer Institute. Even if the Rahmanis deny the allegations: IBM is not allowed to rent the quantum laboratory from them - or has to face sanctions itself.
Ajmal Rahmani, warlord's son and former Afghan member of parliament, bought the entire site of the previous German headquarters from IBM in 2021 through his Ocean Group in order to develop the Quantum Gardens urban district here - a residential and technology campus on which this was also the case last April opened quantum laboratory Q.AX – short for Quantum AI & Experience Center. IBM had already installed the first quantum computer in Europe in Ehningen in 2021 in order to advance research into quantum computers in Germany together with the Fraunhofer Society.
Following US sanctions imposed on December 11th over corruption allegations against Rahmani and his father, local newspapers reported that the municipality of Ehningen had put the ongoing development plan process on hold. In addition, neither the US company nor the German research institute is allowed to do business with the Rahmanis or their companies; otherwise they must also expect sanctions. The Q.AX may have to move out of the buildings that IBM has rented from the Ocean Group.
Since the bankruptcy of the Düsseldorf property developer Development Partner in August, construction work on the future IBM headquarters in Ehningen, which was actually supposed to be completed in 2021, has been stagnating. Initial discussions about a possible takeover of this developer by an investor have begun, it was said after the opening of insolvency proceedings at the beginning of November.
Bribery, competition fraud and tax evasion: These are the allegations made by the American government against the Afghan investor Ajmal Rahmani. This could have serious consequences for the quantum laboratory in Ehningen.
The future was actually supposed to begin in Ehningen (Böblingen district): with a research focus on quantum computing and Europe's only commercial quantum computer, the quantum laboratory Q.AX was opened in the spring. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) advocated that the American IT company IBM bring the megacomputer to Ehningen. This is where the German research and development site of the US giant is located. But now that corruption allegations have been made against the investor in the project, a lot is at stake at the Ehningen location.
Military and Politics: Rahmani Empire in AfghanistanThe Q.AX research laboratory was made possible primarily by Ajmal Rahmani, an investor from Afghanistan. He bought the entire former IBM site in order to develop the Quantum Gardens urban district, where the Q.AX is also located.
The journalist Emran Feroz knows the story of the Rahmanis. According to Feroz, people usually associate the Rahmani family with father Mir Rahmani and his son Ajmal Rahmani. "Mir Rahmani was one of the most important contractors for the US military in Afghanistan, which means that he worked very closely with the US troops there, especially in logistical and military terms, and as a result became a multimillionaire very early on," explains Afghanistan expert.
With all this money that has been collected over the years, the Rahmanis were able to buy their way into politics. Until recently, Mir Rahmani was President of the Afghan Parliament.The trigger for the tumult in the Afghan parliament in 2018 is said to have been the Rahmanis' purchased mandates. In 2020 they made international headlines thanks to the data leak known as the Cyprus Papers: They revealed that the Rahmanis had bought European passports. Afterwards they did their business in Ehningen, for example.
US government raises allegations of corruptionThe money to buy the IBM site in Ehningen presumably comes from corrupt dealings in Afghanistan. The Rahmanis are said to have sold fuel to the American military at inflated prices. In some cases, deliveries failed to materialize. Bribery, eliminating competitors, tax evasion - the American government is now accusing them of all of this. It has imposed sanctions on the Rahmani empire.
Ajmal Rahmani wants to take action against this, explains his spokesman Klaus Fockenberg: "Mr. Rahmani categorically rejects these baseless and misrepresented allegations. That is why a team of lawyers has now been immediately commissioned to refute these allegations in both Germany and the USA - and Mr. Rahmani is very confident about that."
Comments
There's a lot going on out there, but it seems to me there are a few loose threads from the past that beckon me to address them.