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Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=5458
The Fight for Arafat's Fortune Begins
(Aljazeera) Sources close to the Palestinian leadership said a bitter fight had broken out over who should control Arafat's fortune, estimated at $4.2-6.5 billion. Sources said Arafat has written a will transferring control of his assets to members of his wife's family. However, former premier Abu Mazen, who has stepped in as interim leader, believes the fortune belongs to the public treasury. After Suha, Arafat's wife, asked Muhammad Rashid, Arafat's confidant and adviser, to prepare a list of his fortune, Rashid said he would furnish the list only to the PA. According to Jean-Claude Robard, a Swiss investment adviser, Arafat opened his first secret bank account in 1965 with a $50,000 check from the emir of Kuwait. Since then he has set up other accounts in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands. Arafat also owns a number of hotels and holiday resorts in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Austria. He is the main shareholder in two cellular telephone companies operating in Tunisia and Algeria. Some of Arafat's businesses are in partnership with Arab entrepreneurs, including Rifaat Assad, brother of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad, and Barzan Al-Takriti, half-brother of Saddam Hussein.