Sherkhan Farnud

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Sherkhan Farnud (* 1961 in Kunduz Province ; also Sherkhan Farnood ; † August 24, 2018 in Kabul ) was an Afghan poker player and businessman. He founded Kabul Bank, the first private bank in his country, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for embezzlement in November 2014 following a corruption scandal and Bank Run in 2010 .

Entrepreneurial career

Ascent

Farnud came from a poor family in the north of Afghanistan. He went to Russia in the 1980s , where he founded a company specializing in money transfers for the import of Afghan textiles into Russia. In the following 15 years he is said to have built a financial network with connections to Central Asia, Pakistan, Iran, China, Europe and California, which was based on the hawala system. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), it also carried out money laundering for the Taliban , drug traffickers and al-Qaeda .

Kabul Bank

In 2004, the Afghan government granted Farnud a license for the Kabul Bank. Together with Mahmud Karzai, he bought a television station for $ 1.8 million in the 2000s, a gas station network for around $ 21 million, and many properties in Kabul. In 2008 he lost about $ 98 million in a deal with the first Afghan airline, Pamir Airways . The money was invested through a loan from the Kabul Bank. Farnud invested about $ 160 million in Palm Islands .

process

In August 2010, the Central Bank of Afghanistan ordered the dismissal of Farnud and Khalilullah Ferosi from the board of directors of Kabul Bank. The background to this was massive fraudulent lending operations. Both were arrested but released on parole by President Karzai in September 2011. In March 2013, Farnud was first sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement, and the appeals court later increased the sentence to 15 years. On August 24, 2018, he died of heart disease in a Kabul prison.

Poker career

Farnud lived as a professional poker player. In 2008 he won a tournament in the mixed variant H.ORSE and thus a bracelet at the World Series of Poker Europe held in London . The World Series of Poker puts its winnings between 2005 and 2008 at more than 400,000 US dollars . In total, he has earned around $ 630,000 from poker in live tournaments, making him the most successful Afghan poker player.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hervé Asquin: "La Guerre la plus longue: L'Occident dans le piège afghan", Calmann-Lévy , 2013, ISBN 2702150268 , chapter 7, p. 1.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Luis Imbert: The robber bank of Kabul. In: taz . November 13, 2011, Retrieved November 15, 2011 (copied from Le Monde diplomatique ).
  3. ↑ a b Kabul Bank fraud: Afghan court increases jail terms . In: BBC News Asia of November 11, 2014, accessed November 14, 2014
  4. ↑ WSOPE Bracelet Winner Sherkhan Farnood Dies in Afghanistan Prison , cardschat.com, accessed April 18, 2019
  5. ↑ Sherkhan Farnud in the World Series of Poker database, accessed December 25, 2017
  6. ↑ Sherkhan Farnud in the Hendon Mob Poker Database, accessed December 25, 2017 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Farnud, Sherkhan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Farnood, Sherkhan (alternative spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Afghan poker player and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Kunduz Province , Afghanistan
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 2018
Place of death Kabul , Afghanistan