Hundreds of millions of dollars under the control of the Palestinian Authority have landed in the pockets of senior PA officials, including PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, according to a Tuesday evening report by Israel's Channel 10.
Members of the anti-corruption department of the PA have threatened that if embezzlers and participants in the corruption are not held to account and changes made, they will continue to publicly expose instances of fraud pertaining to the officials.
Included in the crimes were real estate deals made by senior officials in the name of the Authority, which were actually ploys to take money belonging to the establishment and to transfer parts of it to private accounts under their personal control.
Former PA corruption buster Fahmi Shabaneh recently told reporters that he believes public dislike and distrust of Fatah will ultimately lead to the overthrow of the party in favor of Hamas. Shabaneh was fired by Abbas after bringing the issues to his attention, according to media sources.
Abbas and a deputy of his are among the officials named in the corruption scandal.