Arafat diverted 1bn in funds to ensure survival

YASSER Arafat diverted nearly $1 billion in public funds to ensure his political survival, accountants hired by Arafat’s own finance ministry have reported.

Jim Prince and a team of American accountants are combing through Arafat's books, and say there is a lot more money yet to be accounted for.

So far, Prince's team has determined that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion with investments in companies like a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Ramallah, a Tunisian cell phone company and venture capital funds in the US and the Cayman Islands.