Hunt for missing millions begins
By David Sharrock and Stephen Farrell
AS YASSIR ARAFAT lies in a coma in a Paris hospital, the hunt has already begun for the millions of dollars that he is alleged to have amassed during his years as the head of the Palestinian State.
Last year the French authorities opened a preliminary investigation into the transfer of large sums of money of undetermined origin to Mrs Arafat’s bank accounts in Switzerland and Paris, where she has lived since 2001.
Mrs Arafat accused Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, of being behind the inquiry. Dismissing the allegations of financial impropriety as “playing into the hands of the Israelis”, Mr Arafat’s supporters have given him the benefit of the doubt, dismissing charges of corruption and grand theft.
Nevertheless, whenever efforts are made to estimate his personal wealth the figure usually settles at about $1 billion (£540million). The Israeli left-wing Ha’aretz newspaper yesterday said that this was based on “monies that were clearly taken out of the territories and withdrawn from Palestinian Authority (PA) accounts between 1995 and 2000”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-1350849,00.html