US ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass says he was disturbed after hearing reports that the Afghan government requested the early release of Khalilullah Frozi, the ex-CEO of Kabul Bank who is accused of having a major role in the collapse of one of Afghanistan’s financial institutions.

He said that many Afghans in the country have suffered in the past decade because international assistance funds were stolen for personal gain.

The reactions come after President Ashraf Ghani in a decree ordered the release of Frozi.

The text of a presidential decree seen by TOLOnews reads that Mr. Frozi has been released from the detention of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) on the order of Ghani who after assuming office as president in 2014 ordered the review the Kabul Bank bankruptcy case as a symbolic move that many Afghans at the time saw it as Mr. Ghani’s firm action against endemic corruption in public offices.

The decree argues that Mr. Frozi has been released due to an illness he suffers from.

The letter states that a task team led by Rashid Totakhel, head of policy and oversight and monitoring office of the president, was assigned to investigate the health condition and financial commitment of Mr. Frozi.

Among other critics are Rahmatullah Nabil, the ex-chief of the National Directorate of Security and one of Ghani’s rivals in the upcoming presidential election who said that Mr. Frozi had contributed $30 million to Ghani’s campaign in exchange for his release.

“We have the same concerns. There was/is big ambiguity in fighting corruption due to lack of political will. According to my information/evidences, Khalil Firozy should return $370 million. It is clear to everyone that, how they are misusing our national institutions,” Nabil said in response to Bass’s tweets.

But, President Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi rejected Nabil’s statement as false allegations.

“These sources are so misleading that they can even mislead a well-known politician. This has no truth in it Mr. Nabil. Because of his deteriorating health conditions the government has put him under severe house arrest,” Sediqqi responded to Nabil.

A brief background of Kabul Bank scandal

In 2015, President Ghani ordered that Mr. Frozi should serve out his full 10 years in prison and pay his court-ordered fine of $137 million.

Kabul Bank once Afghanistan’s largest financial institution collapsed in 2010 after reports of embezzlement of over $900 million.

“Many of the Kabul Bank suspects who had high-level political relations in the present and the previous governments, were not treated legally and those involved in the collapse of the Kabul Bank were treated with a political approach,” said Naser Taimoori, a researcher from the Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA).

“Such cases have always been treated politically. The chaos that we see in Afghanistan has a link with corruption,” said former presidential advisor Adila Bahram Nizami.

This comes after Mr. Frozi’s colleague Sherkhan Farnood, former chairman of the old Kabul Bank, died in prison at the age of 57 last year in August.

He was serving his sentence at Bagram Prison after being found guilty in the $900 million Kabul Bank embezzlement scandal in 2014.

The Controversial Contract

In November 2015, the government launched the 'Smart City Township' Project in which Khalilullah Frozi was a part.

Government officials said the aim of the program was to help the debtors of Kabul Bank repay their debt instead of being imprisoned.

The move, however, sparked an outcry.

In February 2016, President Ashraf Ghani canceled the contract of the Smart City Township.

Sherkhan Farnood was the chairman of Kabul Bank until late 2010, which was Afghanistan's largest private financial institution with over one million customers at the time.

Farnood held a 28.16 percent share in the old Kabul Bank. By November 2010 both Farnood and Frozi had been suspended.

As of early 2011, both were effectively under house arrest and could not leave the country.