'Ponzi scheme' at Kabul bank exposed

A new independent review of the Kabul Bank scandal says hundreds of millions of dollars from the bank were spirited out of Afghanistan - some smuggled in airline food trays.

The report, offering new details about the collapse of Afghanistan's largest bank, says the money ended up in accounts in more than two dozen countries.

The report released on Wednesday outlines how shareholders of Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off more than $861m (€664.1m) in fraudulent loans - a so-called 'Ponzi scheme' that used customer deposits and operated under nascent banking oversight.

The report claims there was poor oversight by Afghan bank regulators and political interference in the criminal investigation - an allegation the attorney general's office has rejected.