[Bloomberg] Jonathan Ferziger - Some 4,000 Gazans gave cash to middlemen in 2008 for a scheme to invest in smuggling tunnels, but the investments have now collapsed, with investors losing as much as $500 million. "Our scandal is much worse than Madoff," said Omar Shaban, director of Pal-Think, an economic research institute in Gaza City. "There is no transparency, no public records, no regulators, none of the mechanisms that would let you trace what happened to all the money that people invested in the tunnels," said Samir Abdullah, the PA's former planning minister. Hamas is blamed for encouraging the investments. "The imam told us that we wouldn't regret joining this blessed business," said Nabila Ghabin, 43. "This happened in mosques all over Gaza." Pal-Think's Shaban said: "Thousands of families lost their money and they hold Hamas responsible." Ihab al-Ghusin, a spokesman for the Hamas Ministry of Interior, said: "We discovered that a well-known businessman identified as Ihab al-Kurd is behind this scheme.... Al-Kurd was initially jailed but later released after his property was confiscated."
2009-10-09 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive