Posted on 11/08/2003 5:15:52 PM PST by blam
Arafat 'diverted $300m of public money to Swiss bank account'
By Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem
(Filed: 09/11/2003)
More than $300 million (£176 million) of Palestinian Authority funds were diverted by Yasser Arafat into a previously undisclosed Swiss bank account and the money can no longer be traced, according to a damning American television report to be broadcast today.
The CBS network's 60 Minutes, a respected investigative programme, claims that missing Palestinian funds were held in Switzerland in an account set up in the name of a British Virgin Island company. The account has since been closed.
The revelation follows the disclosure by the International Monetary Fund in September that Mr Arafat had diverted more than £560 million of Palestinian Authority funds from 1995 to 2000.
The new report coincides with a BBC documentary, also to be screened tonight, which claims the Palestinian Authority is paying members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed militia responsible for carrying out suicide attacks against Israelis, up to $50,000 (£29,000) a month.
The BBC will quote a former Palestinian cabinet minister claiming that the money was intended to wean the gunmen away from suicide bombings. But an al-Aqsa leader interviewed by the BBC said that despite the payments, the group had not declared a formal ceasefire and Mr Arafat had not asked it to stop the suicide bombings.
Details about the two potentially damaging reports emerged yesterday as the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, announced that Mr Arafat had agreed to divide responsibility for security between the interior ministry and the national security council. The deal clears the way for the formation of a new Palestinian government.
The CBS programme reports that $300 million of Palestinian money was channelled into a private account at the Lombard Odier Bank in Geneva. The account was closed in 2001, and the report says that it is unclear where the funds are now.
Some of the money was tax refunds from the Israeli government to the Palestinian Authority for duty levied on imports destined for the Palestinian-run areas - all of which must enter through Israeli ports.
Mr Arafat's "economics adviser" Mohammed Rashid asked Israel to pay fuel taxes to a secret account opened in 1994 at Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv, over which he and Mr Arafat had sole signing authority.
Investigators believe that some funds from this account were channelled into the Swiss account. A letter written by Mr Rashid and obtained by CBS states that the Swiss account would draw on revenue from Palestinian "taxes" and "customs" levies.
CBS claims that $300 million was in fact sent to the Swiss bank. With the help of an Israeli businessman, Mr Rashid apparently opened the account at Lombard Odier in Geneva in the name of a UK-registered company.
In the programme Mr Rashid tells Lesley Stahl, the 60 Minutes reporter: "I don't decide what we do with the money." Ms Stahl asks him "why Arafat did not bring the money back" to help benefit the Palestinian people.
Mr Rashid replies: "Why don't you ask him?" There is no suggestion that either Mr Arafat or Mr Rashid has personally benefited from Palestinian Authority funds.
The IMF issued a report in September which said Mr Arafat, in a five-year period between 1995 and 2000, diverted £560 million from the Palestinian Authority budget into the special bank account at Bank Leumi.
Mr Arafat's chaotic handling of Palestinian finances has long been condemned and he was forced to agree to more rigorous auditing after foreign donors threatened to withhold promised funds.
The IMF statement followed the first authoritative investigation of the Palestinian body's finances. Salam Fayad, the new finance minister and a former World Bank official, is working with a team of American accountants to unravel the finances.
Of the money sent to accounts controlled by Mr Arafat and Mr Rashid, the IMF said $700 million had been accounted for and was in investments held by the Authority.
Officials admitted that there was a gap of at least $200 million which they suggested may represent a decline in investment value, rather than a further diversion of money by Mr Arafat.
In the programme Mr Fayad sheds light on Mr Arafat's extensive system of patronage, claiming that the Palestinian leader hands out $20 million a month to his security forces in cash. However, Mr Fayad says: "There is corruption out there. There is impropriety, and that's what had to be fixed."
A senior Palestinian official refused to comment on the claims but said: "It is a shame that CBS focused on allegations of corruption rather than Israel's ongoing military occupation of Palestinian lands."
One of the sports books here actually has a line on the life expectancy of good 'ol Yasser....
The Mosad line says worm material within 6 months.
LVM
Too bad for the worms, having to share ground with a piece of excrement like the killer of Israeli children, Arafat..
Beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes all the way down to the bone...
Huh? As they say on the farm, one steak on a mound of manure won't make your barn a butcher shop.
Or maybe Dan Blather said that! 8^o
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