Destination Dubai: As the U.S. Was Rebuilding Afghanistan, Contractors Snapped up Properties in the UAE
The former speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament and his son, who were sanctioned late last year for allegedly misappropriating U.S. government aid, own luxury real estate in Dubai worth millions of dollars, property records reveal.The former speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament and his son, who were sanctioned late last year for allegedly misappropriating U.S. government aid, own luxury real estate in Dubai worth millions of dollars, property records reveal.
Mir Rahman Rahmani and his son Ajmal poured at least $15.2 million into properties in the glittering Gulf city, including two residential high-rise buildings and two large villas in The Meadows, an exclusive suburban community featuring tennis courts and swimming pools.
The revelation comes just months after the Rahmanis were slapped with U.S. Treasury Department sanctions alleging that they siphoned off millions of dollars in American reconstruction funds during the years between the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and their sweeping return 20 years later. (The Rahmanis challenged the sanctions in a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government on January 31.)
The sanctions notice, issued in December 2023, also blocked dozens of international companies it said Ajmal Rahmani owned or controlled as part of an “international corporate network.” The Treasury Department did not say where the Rahmanis had invested the profits of the contracting business. But an investigation by OCCRP, Lighthouse Reports, and Etilaat Roz found that they bought real estate in Dubai during and after the period the U.S. says they were allegedly engaged in corruption in Afghanistan.
At least two of the companies named by the U.S. were used to develop large residential complexes in Dubai, Ocean Residencia and Fern Heights, which contain a total of 228 units that generate over $2 million in rental income every year, according to rental contracts obtained by OCCRP.
