VANCOUVER, CANADA – A Court in Washington D.C. has ruled against a challenge aimed at overturning the sanctions on two former Afghanistan government officials and associated entities.
In its ruling issued last Friday, April 19, the US District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed appeals brought forth by the former speaker of Afghanistan parliament Mir Rahman Rahmani and his son, Ajmal Rahmani, also a former parliamentarian, who were sanctioned earlier by the US Treasury on charges of transnational corruption and embezzlement.
On December 11, 2023, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the designation of the Rahmanis along with 44 business-associated entities for their alleged involvement in transnational corruption.
This designation resulted in the blocking of all their assets within the United States and under the control of U.S. persons, prohibited any transactions with them and made them persona non grata–unable to enter the United States.
The allegations against the Rahmanis include their purported involvement in multiple complex procurement corruption schemes, particularly in supplying fuel for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). In its designation, OFAC said that they had engaged in bid rigging, import tax fraud, under-delivery on contracts, and bribery of Afghanistan officials.
OFAC had said that the Rahmanis commanded an international corporate network which acquired foreign citizenships in order to facilitate their illicit activities. The investigation, according to US officials, had been conducted in coordination with the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), although the latter has not yet commented publicly on the designation.
The Rahmanis were the first senior officials in the former government of Afghanistan sanctioned by the United States, the country which paid for most of the expenses of that government during its two decades of existence.
Mr. Rahmani, the father, rose to power and prominence thanks to American fuel contracts which he initially accessed through his brother, General Baba Jan, one of the powerful anti-Taliban commanders during the early years of the US invasion of Afghanistan. He himself also held military positions, leading security responsibilities in the areas around the Bagram Air Base, the largest American military camp in Afghanistan.
The designation came as a surprise to many, not the least because the government in which Mr. Rahmani and his son held posts and commanded authority was already extinct–partly caused by a withdrawal agreement the United States signed with the Taliban insurgency who are now in power in Kabul.
The surprise also stemmed from the fact that the designations were made in response to allegations of misappropriation of funds from contracts funded by the US government, which observers thought the Americans knew about long before.
In January, legal representatives of the Rahmanis in the United States brought a lawsuit against the OFAC and the US Department of State under the Administrative Procedural Act (APA).
The court ruling, which finally confirmed the sanctions, says that the Treasury’s actions were within its legal authority and could not be reviewed or revoked by the court.
Both Rahmanis currently live in Germany, where they had just moved prior to the announcement of sanctions against them last December. The designation also halted a major development contract they were in the process of finalizing with a German state government.
