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Investigators say at least 10 people aided a young woman, whom they identified as Mrs. Shokofa Salehi Shogoofeh (born 1991), to defraud and steal $1.1 million from Azizi Bank. Inayatullah Fazli, Azizi's chief executive, says the money was stolen two months ago. Shogoofeh is alleged to have then used fake travel documents under the name Samira to reach India; her current whereabouts are unknown.(20130904)

The Afghan Central Bank has launched an investigation into Kabul Bank and Azizi Bank, the country's second largest. Kabul Bank will be liquidated in April 2011. Kabul Bank's biggest shareholders, including a brother of the Afghan president, Mahmood Karzai, allegedly used improperly obtained loans to speculate on the Dubai property market that has since gone bust, and to lead luxurious lifestyles, was reported by Wall Street Journal 20110327.

Shareholders Azizi Bank:
Mr. Mirwais Azizi Hotak, Businessman, Afghan Mr. Haji Ali Akbar Zhawandai, Businessman, Afghan Mr. Humayuon Azizi Hotak, Businessman, Afghan Mr. Abdul Aziz Khan, Businessman, Afghan Mr. Farhad Mirwais Azizi, Businessman,

Afghan Board of Directors
Mr. Mirwais Azizi Hotak, Chairman Mr. Haji Ali Akbar Zhawandai, Vice Chairman Mr. Azarakhsh Hafizi, Member Ms. Guljan Zmary. Member, Member and Professional Director Board of Management Deepak Shrivastava, President and Chief Executive Officer Inayatullah Fazli, Vice President and Deputy Chief Executive Officer T.V.K. Subramanian, Chief Credit Officer Manohar Singh, Chief Finance Officer Chief Operations Officer Chief Internal Auditor (P.K. Agrawal) Statutory Auditors KPMG

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat and Managing Director of Azizi Bank:
Amanullah Ghalib (20180926)

Bakhtar Bank is a 100% subsidiary of Azizi Bank,  both are part of the Azizi Hotak General Trading Group.

Background:
The bank was founded in June 2005 by Chairman Mirwais Azizi (possibly the richest man in Afghanistan) and Vice Chairman Haji Ali Akbar Zawandai. The fallout of the Kabul Bank scandal has also drawn attention to Azizi Bank, Afghanistan's No. 2 lender. It is part of a Dubai-based family conglomerate known as the Azizi Group with interests in a number of businesses, including a property development arm planning to build luxury homes on one of Dubai's manmade palm-shaped islands.

In an interview 2010902 the son of the bank's founder and a top official, Farhad Azizi, told The Associated Press that the company's Dubai real estate division is "not at all" connected to customer funds deposited at its Azizi Bank. "They are not linked to each other," Farhad Azizi said. "The bank has its own shareholders. It's an entity by itself that is governed by the Central Bank of Afghanistan."

In addition to the bank, the Azizi Group runs a business to ship liquefied gas and other fuels to Afghanistan and a property division with plans to build high-rise apartments with names like Azizi Diamond and Azizi Crystal on Dubai's Palm Jebel Ali, a manmade island in the shape of a palm tree. None of the projects has yet been built. They were halted like hundreds of others when Dubai's property bubble began to burst in late 2008. Prices plunged by half in a matter of months and have yet to bounce back. Azizi Group still controls several plots of land in the emirate.

Azizi Bank and its related companies have not been accused of wrongdoing. But reforms that prompted management changes at Kabul Bank and brought its lending practices to light could also affect Azizi's leadership -- a possibility raised in a prominent article in the Emirati daily The National on 20100902.

The former chairman and chief executive officer of Kabul Bank both resigned because, under new reforms, only banking professionals can hold top positions at banks. Kabul Bank has said senior executives at some of the country's other private banks might have to step aside as well to conform with the reforms.