We are investigating it, and if we find this is a way of laundering money, we will intervene, said Noorullah Delawari, the governor of Afghanistans central bank. Yet he acknowledged that there were more questions than answers at this point. I dont know where so much gold would come from, unless you can tell me something about it, he said in an interview. Or, as a European official who tracks the Afghan economy put it, new mysteries abound as the war appears to be drawing to a close.
Figuring out what precisely is happening in the Afghan economy remains as confounding as ever. Nearly 90 percent of the financial activity takes place outside formal banks. Written contracts are the exception, receipts are rare and statistics are often unreliable. Money laundering is commonplace, say Western and Afghan officials.
As a result, with the gold, right now youre stuck in that situation we usually are: is there something bad going on here or is this just the Afghan way of commerce? said a senior American official who tracks illicit financial networks.
There is reason to be suspicious: the gold shipments track with the far larger problem of cash smuggling. For years, flights have left Kabul almost every day carrying thick wads of bank notes dollars, euros, Norwegian kroner, Saudi Arabian riyals and other currencies stuffed into suitcases, packed into boxes and shrink-wrapped onto pallets. At one point, cash was even being hidden in food trays aboard now-defunct Pamir Airways flights to Dubai.
Last year alone, Afghanistans central bank says, roughly $4.5 billion in cash was spirited out through the airport. Efforts to stanch the flow have had limited impact, and concerns about money laundering persist, according to a report released last week by the United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
The unimpeded bulk cash flows raise the risk of money laundering and bulk cash smuggling tools often used to finance terrorist, narcotics and other illicit operations, the report said. The cash, and now the gold, is most often taken to Dubai, where officials are known for asking few questions. Many wealthy Afghans park their money and families in the emirate, and gold dealers say more middle-class Afghans are sending money and gold seen as a safeguard against economic ruin to Dubai as talk of a postwar economic collapse grows louder.
But given Dubais reputation as a haven for laundered money, an Afghan official said that the obvious suspicion is that at least some of the apparent growth in gold shipments to Dubai is tied to the myriad illicit activities opium smuggling, corruption, Taliban taxation schemes that have come to define Afghanistans economy.
There are also indications that Iran could be dipping into the Afghan gold trade. It is already buying up dollars and euros here to circumvent American and European sanctions, and it may be using gold for the same purpose.
