VIENNA, (Reuters) – Former top U.S. diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad and his wife are fighting the seizure of her Austrian bank accounts, lawyers for the couple said after a magazine reported U.S. authorities were investigating him for suspected money laundering.
Profil magazine cited legal documents discovered in paper recycling bins outside a Vienna justice facility for its report this week that Khalilzad – U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations under President George W. Bush – was being investigated.
It said Vienna prosecutors, acting on a U.S. request for legal assistance in 2013, got a court in February to freeze seven accounts owned by his wife, author Cheryl Benard, who is a citizen of both the United States and Austria.
Profil said Khalilzad, 63, was suspected of collecting large sums from construction and oil companies in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates and sending $1.4 million dollars of this to Benard’s bank accounts in Vienna.
