Qayum Karzai

Qayum Karzai's first restaurant was in Chicago.[12] He owns three restaurants in Baltimore: the Helmand (an Afghan restaurant),[13] Tapas Teatro, and Helmand Kabobi. Qayum's brother Mahmood Karzai owns The Helmand restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[14]

Independent investigative journalists, Afghan businessmen, and others have alleged that Qayum Karzai has used questionable and heavy-handed methods in Afghanistan, especially in dealing with business rivals. Some have brought forth serious ethics charges and alleged organized effort to control the news media in parts of Afghanistan and to intimidate business rivals, allegedly driving some out of Afghanistan. In 2012, shocking revelations were exposed in several major news stories where fellow Afghan associates of Qayum Karzai brought forth serious allegations about various controversial business dealings.

Naseem Pashtoon Sharifi, a businessman, and major independent newspaper, media and advertising company owner, in Kandahar is reported to have been driven out of Afghanistan by these methods and went public with major and detailed accusations against Qayum Karzai and his associates. Sharifi reportedly fled Afghanistan out of fear of President Karzai's brother and has detailed information about Qayum Karzai's alleged business dealings in Afghanistan that he says caused him to flee for his life and abandon major business ventures, property and investments in Afghanistan.

According to a December 2010 report in the Toronto Star, "But further investigation shows Sharifi’s story is far from one man’s grudge. Four other Kandahar sources, speaking to The Star on condition of anonymity, confirmed his account that Karzai muscle-flexing removed him from the city, with Karzai interests promptly taking over the bulk of his business."[15]

Journalists from the Toronto Star, The Washington Times, Washington Examiner, the Boiling Frog Post (www.boilingfrogpost.com), and others have raised concerns have undertaken investigative reporting about these matters.[16]

According to journalist Michael Hughes of the Washington Examiner (18 April 2012) and Salem News: "Qayum's control of the media has reduced southern Afghanistan to a de facto totalitarian state. This doesn't seem to bother NATO a bit considering it finances Qayum-owned media outlets which, incidentally, never seem to report anything negative about the Karzai regime...."[17]

According to investigate research, and an editorial in The Washington Times (21 May 2012) entitled "Afghanistan’s corruption breeds failure: Successful withdrawal requires tougher action against official thievery," by Malou Innocent and Danny Marku: "But Qayum Karzai is not the only Karzai involved in such strong-arm tactics against his business rivals. Hamid Karzai’s younger half-brother, the late Ahmed Wali Karzai, once consolidated his power by acting as both the powerful chairman of Kandahar’s provincial council and by relying on a mafialike network of militias that made millions of dollars by bribing security companies that benefited from contracts escorting NATO convoys."[18]

Sibel Edmonds has researched and written about controversies surrounding Qayum Karzai's, Ahmed Wali Karzai's, and Mahmoud Karzai's various business dealings in Afghanistan. The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition has also raised concerns.