Former US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad is being investigated for alleged money-laundering through his wife’s bank account in Vienna, reports from Austria say.
Zalmay Khalilzad is accused of transferring $1.4 million to his wife’s account, Profil magazine reported.
The money is said to be linked to activities involving companies in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Zalmay Khalilzad was US ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2007.
According to court documents from May 2013 obtained by Profil magazine, Austrian authorities froze several Vienna-based accounts of his American-Austrian wife, the social scientist and author Cheryl Benard.
Cheryl Benard’s lawyer, Holger Bielesz, says the US authorities have yet to produce any “concrete evidence” against his client.
A decision on Cheryl Bernard’s appeal for her account to be unfrozen is expected soon.