Afghan Wireless Company Sale Deal Dead?
Source alleges that $500 million deal to sell Afghan Cell phone giant to group outsiders falls apart on news of $400 million lawsuit against Ehsan Bayat and privately held AWCC
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A dependable source to Kabulpress.org revealed today that a deal to sell AWCC to either a group of investors from the Gulf States or Russia for $500 million was dead in the water after a law suit was filed in the UK charging that AWCC, its US-based parent, Telephone Systems, Inc. and their CEO, Afghan-American Ehsan Bayat had defrauded early partners of part ownership in the company. Bayat is a noted businessman and philanthropist, widely viewed as one of the wealthiest men in Afghanistan and a potential candidate for high political office there.
As noted in last week’s article, the lawsuit, filed by former Bayat business partners from the UK and Switzerland, claims fraud, conspiracy, deceit and breach of trust. This allegedly occurred after the defeat of the Taliban, when AWCC, Bayat and another business associate, Mark Warner, established a new wireless communications business relationship with the new Afghan government installed by the coalition. While using the infrastructure designed financed and built during the Taliban regime by the early partners, it cut out those partners who claimed substantial financial input and business expertise that established Afghanistan’s first wireless communications system.
For more details, see http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article3359
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