Unbridled corruption and Tony Abi Saab running free, are haunting efforts to rebuild Afghanistan 0

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ABOUT Unbridled corruption and Tony Abi Saab running free, are haunting efforts to rebuild Afghanistan

At least $ 100 billion was poured into Afghanistan by the USA for US-led reconstruction efforts, since 2002. In spite of this, the situation in the war-torn country is grim, with a worsening economy and serious law and order problems.The agency which led the investigation, Sigar, in 2015 pointed to millions of dollars wasted on projects that were abandoned, the rise of the vicious Taliban, and millions of dollars squandered in fraud, to which a handful of US military officers and several contractors, pleaded guilty.One dreaded arms dealer is Tony Abi Saab of the Abi Saab group, which owns Brescia Middle East (BME) and Tactica Ltd Afghanistan. They import weapons to Lebanon. Italian firms Beretta and Tanfoglio are principal suppliers. Their companies are cheating US companies of a lot of money through fraudulent contracts.Tony Abi Saab of the Abi Saab group is associated with the Sima Salazar Group, which is owned by the fraudulent Raymond Azar. Tony Abi Saab is connected to Brescia Middle East (BME) and this has a close business links to the Sima Salazar Group through Tactica Ltd Afghanistan.While Tony Abi Saab was arrested for bribing US army personnel to secure contracts and carrying away money belonging to the US government of over $ 5 million dollars, he could not be sentenced to a life term as he exploited the gaps in criminal law. So, now he is free and continuing to think of ways to bribe people and make money off Afghanistan.Both Lebanese contractors, Tony and an ally Raymond are allegedly running numbers of ghost companies and smuggling weapons to the country at war. Raymond Azar is a convicted criminal who was charged with bribery and fraud against the US. He is a president of Sima Salazar group which was earlier awarded over 150 millions of dollars of contracts from the US Army, but none after he was caught. Raymond's company had a close link with Tony's Tactica Ltd which was purchasing arms commercially and selling them to dubious groups in Syria.