Former Bushie Enmeshed in Money Laundering Probe

I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

Zalmay Khalilzad's wife's bank account has been frozen by Austrian authorities:

A U.S. probe into alleged money laundering by Zalmay Khalilzad has led Austrian authorities to freeze a Vienna bank account linked to the former presidential envoy to Afghanistan.

Khalilzad, who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, allegedly transferred $1.4 million to his wife’s bank account in Vienna, Austrian magazine Profil reported today, citing court documents. The money came from oil and building contracts in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates that allegedly violated U.S. laws, U.S. investigators told their Austrian counterparts, according to the papers cited by Profil.

Austrian court spokeswoman Christina Salzborn confirmed the documents’ authenticity in a telephone interview. Christian Bielesz, the lawyer for Khalilzad’s wife, Cheryl Benard, confirmed that the account was frozen and an investigation under way.

The U.S. had asked Austrian authorities not to seize Benard’s account, Bielesz said in a phone interview. A decision on whether to unfreeze the account is expected “quite soon,” he said.

The documents alleging the misconduct were part of a cache of papers retrieved from a garbage bin earlier this year by a Vienna-based blogger. Austria’s courts have instructed workers to take better care of sensitive information, Salzborn said.

Of course, the response of the judge is to criticize the bank for allowing money laundering to be found by a pesky blogger.

Needless to say, Khalilzad is likely neither to face prosecution, nor to have the accounts seized, because, well, the you can be sure that there is someone on the other side of the aisle who wants to get rich the same way, and they need to lube that revolving door for their turn.

I'm beginning to think that we are living in the last days of the Roman Empire.