KABUL - A prosecutor at the Attorney General Office (AGO) on Saturday said four foreign firms whose wrong audit reports compounded the Kabul Bank crisis would be brought to justice.

The Anti-Corruption and Crimes Section head at the AGO, Syed Alam Ishaqzai, told a press conference in Kabul the firms included PricewaterhouseCoopers, trading as PwC, a multinational professional service firm headquartered in London and Deloitte Consulting, which won a 5-year $92 million project in August 2009.

He said the companies had received an amount of $164,000 in return for preparing audit reports, which were wrong and had exacerbated the crisis. Ishaqzai alleged the firms had indicated Kabul Bank was running normal, a false claim that plunged the private lender into deep financial trouble.

He said the AGO had collected evidence against the four companies and their officials would be brought to justice through the involvement of Interpol. The firms have already closed their offices in Afghanistan.

The AGO official was not satisfied with a primary court verdict that sent 21 individuals in the Kabul Bank case to jail. He believed the sentences were too mild, given the gravity of their crime.

He said some central bank officials had also been convicted for their failure and negligence to grasp the magnitude of the scandal. The bank plunged into deep crisis in 2009 when reports about illegal loans amounting to $935 million surfaced.

The Special Tribunal sentenced the bank’s former president Sher Khan Farnoud, and his deputy Khalilullah Ferozi to five years in jail each and 19 other individuals from six months to four years in prison.

Central bank officials say so far $173 million have been recovered from borrowers in cash and 45 million from selling their properties in Afghanistan. They say another $270 million to $300 million granted in loans remain unaccounted for, believing the money might have been stashed abroad. (Pajhwok)