What a piece of garbage (literally):
"Ex-US ambassador Khalilzad is snared in inquiry" by Deb Riechmann | Associated Press September 09, 2014
WASHINGTON — A former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations has been caught up in a suspected money-laundering inquiry that led to a freeze on bank deposits he and his wife hold in Austria.
Austrian officials said Zalmay Khalilzad, the founder of a global consulting group, was being investigated for suspected money laundering related to business activities in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.
The case became public after a blogger found documents while rummaging through a garbage can used by the state prosecutor’s office in Vienna.
However, few other details are known about the case.
The US Justice Department in May 2013 asked Austrian authorities for records regarding the Viennese bank accounts of Khalilzad’s wife, Cheryl Benard, according to a statement by Khalilzad’s US lawyer, Robert B. Buehler.
Austrian authorities then froze the accounts.
Khalilzad strongly contested the decision to freeze his and his wife’s accounts.
He contended it was an overreaction to a routine request for information by the Justice Department to Austrian officials.
The Austrian state prosecutor, Thomas Vecsey, confirmed the blogger’s report in the Austrian weekly Profil, which said the inquiry centers on the alleged transfer of $1.5 million to an account belonging to Benard.
Buehler noted in a statement that no charges have been filed against Khalilzad or Benard.
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