The Hunt For Arafat's Money

DRUDGE article
I'll quote the entire article before Drudge takes it down:

MAG: Arafat Skimmed $2 Million a Month From the Gas Trade
Sun Nov 14 2004 09:53:40 ET

New York -- Last year auditors discovered Arafat was guilty of skimming $2 million a month from the gasoline trade in the territories, TIME reports.

In August 2002 international donors forced Arafat to sign over his investments to the Palestine Investment Fund, which was audited by U.S. accountants and managed by Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, a former International Monetary Fund official. After scouring corporations throughout the Arab world and bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg, the auditors identified $800 million, which has been made a part of the Palestinian Authority’s official budget. “It’s the most successful financial reform in the Arab world,” Jim Prince, president of the Los Angeles–based Democracy Council and head of the audit team, tells TIME.

People close to Fayyad’s investigation told TIME of Arafat’s skimming from the gas trade. Breaking the gasoline smuggling and corruption boosted the Palestinian Authority’s official treasury by $10 million a month and cut gas prices for ordinary Palestinians.

“Arafat’s death means his followers may never know just how much more they may be owed,” writes TIME’s Matt Rees in “Where’s Arafat’s Money?” In the mid-1990s, Arafat controlled a financial empire worth at least $3 billion. By the time of his death, he was down to his last $1 billion, according to Israeli-intelligence estimates.

Arafat wife Suha’s outburst that his successors were “trying to bury [him] alive” came after she learned that Arafat had signed over at least $800 million to the government of the Palestinian Authority two years ago, TIME reports. Top Palestinian officials say Suha wants the new chief of the P.L.O., Mahmoud Abbas, and Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei to give her money out of the P.L.O.’s party coffers. But a senior P.L.O. official tells TIME, “they’ll pay her a pension, and that’s it.”

People familiar with Arafat’s finances say the Palestinian leader sent Suha $200,000 a month out of the Palestinian Authority’s budget for the Office of the President. French authorities are investigating transfers of $15 million from Swiss banks to Paris accounts in Suha’s name at the Arab Bank and at BNP Paribas Bank, a French bank, TIME reports.

Senior Palestinian security officials tell TIME that Arafat also shipped money to the gunmen of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Developing...

THANK YOU DRUDGE!

Arafat has been known as the world's richest terrorist for years. His personal savings - believed to be at or over a billion - however, remained quite mysterious throughout his life. Some (like me) believe that Arafat's money bankrolled terrorist groups such as Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (recently renamed after Arafat).
I believe that the search for Arafat's money will be a major issue for Palestinian finance experts, as the sheer amount of money that could be returned to the Palestinian territory is huge, not to mention potential fees that accountants may charge for locating the funds. Because much of Arafat's money is in Swiss banks, which are subject to very little regulation, and may be able to hide and keep Arafat's money in less-than-legal but non-punishable methods.
The International Monetary Fund believes that there is a nealry 900 million dollar hole in the Palestinian Authority's finances. Part of this hole may have been filled by the 800 million Drudge mentioned, but it is unclear.
Arafat commonly diverted charity donations meant for the Palestinian people into his personal finances, an action that US Congressional records have verified. And, Arafat's personal bank accounts and the Palestinian Authority finances often overlap, with only Arafat himself having an idea of the division between them. Still, there are no adaquate financial records to properly account for much of the money Arafat may or may not have.

roundup of news sources: BBC, World Tribune, News 24, Haaretz(Israeli newspaper, to clarify the name).