Where's Arafat's Money?

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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," says Jim Prince, president of the Los Angeles based Democracy Council and head of the audit team.

People close to Fayyad's investigation tell TIME that last year the auditors discovered that Arafat was guilty of skimming $2 million a month from the gasoline trade in the territories. 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. But Arafat's death means his followers may never know just how much more they may be owed.