Former U.S. Ambassador is Being Investigated for Money Laundering

I love it when the government eats its own.

Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, is being investigated for money laundering, and several of his wife's bank accounts have been frozen in connection with the probe, National Journal reports.

The Justice Department investigation only became public on Sunday, when a blogger found relevant documents in a garbage container used by a state prosecutor's office in Vienna and posted them online. A day later, Austrian magazine Profil reported on the case.

The investigation centers on a $1.5 million transfer from Khalilzad's bank account to an Austrian account that belongs to his wife. The money came from illegal oil and building contracts in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, according to American officials cited in the papers recovered from the dumpster.

-RW