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Gary Fitleberg is a political analyst specializing in International Relations with an emphasis on Middle East affairs.
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By Gary Fitleberg
December 24, 2004
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| Suha on the lanes? (AP) |
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According to the Associated Press, the late dictator was morally bankrupt but financially flush despite desperate cries of near-poverty.
Yasser Arafat was a clandestine investor in the city's hottest upscale bowling alley, according to a bombshell new report.
Three years ago he pumped $1.3 million into Bowlmor Lanes, the popular Greenwich Village recreation center that has attracted a galaxy of stars, from Cameron Diaz to Rudy Giuliani.
While his people suffered from poverty, billions of humanitarian aid money destined for clothing, education, food, and shelter went towards terrorism, his personal pocket, and ... tenpins.
"This is a complete shock to us," said Bowlmor founder Thomas Shannon.
The entrepreneur said he had no idea he was pocketing money from Arafat when a holding company that handled some of the Palestinian boss' financial affairs began buying up 2 percent of Bowlmor's parent company in 2001.
Shannon said he became aware of the connection only after Bloomberg Markets magazine revealed it yesterday in an expose on Arafat's finances.
Bowlmor does not want to have anything to do with the terror-linked leader.
"You can't imagine that something like this will show up on your doorstep," Shannon said. "You feel the way you feel when your apartment has been robbed."
Just this summer, GOP delegates threw two convention bashes at the hip Village hangout. Bowlmor has also hosted Jewish Defense League events and is a popular place for parents to hold children's bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah parties.
Bowlers at the lanes, where pins signed by Giuliani -- a vociferous Arafat critic who once had him removed from Lincoln Center -- Carson Daly, and others grace the walls, said the Arafat connection left a taste in their mouth as sour as the smell of an old bowling shoe.
"I can't believe it," said Marci Selsberg, of West Orange, N.J. "I don't want to come back. I don't want to be a part of his investments."
Arafat became involved with Bowlmor through a complicated investment scheme designed to fund and support his terrorism as well as to pocket the proceeds to his own personal accounts.
His financial company placed money with a Virginia-based firm called SilverHaze, which set up some Delaware holding companies to invest in U.S. ventures.
Just how did Arafat's money get into a bowling alley, of all things?
It turns out that the SilverHaze executive who created the Onyx Funds, Zeid Masri, is a graduate-school classmate of Bowlmor founder Shannon.
Shannon said yesterday that Masri told him only that the SilverHaze money came from "wealthy European families."
"He never mentioned [Arafat]," Shannon said, adding that that Arafat received no profits from his investment.
Masri could not be reached for comment. But he told Bloomberg that he believed companies in which Arafat's corporation invested knew were the money was coming from.
"When we invest, people want to know where the money is coming from," he said. "We're 110 percent comfortable about where the money came from."
A spokeswoman for Bowlmor said yesterday their lawyers were working "through the night" to sever the Arafat financial link, and expected that the matter could be wrapped up as early as today.
Arafat was listed as one of the richest men in the world by Fortune magazine.
The Bloomberg report said that Arafat disclosed he had invested $799 million in various enterprises over the past two years. His money managers invested in venture capital funds, software startups and telecommunications company from Israel to Silicon Valley.
But one bowler enjoying an afternoon at the lanes yesterday thinks she knew what he would have said if he ever ventured past the club's velvet rope and saw what was going on there.
"He would say, 'Look at these stupid Americans, giving me money,' " said Samanta Balassa, 27.
"We are in the process of placing the funds in the amount they invested in escrow to be returned," Strike Holdings CEO Thomas Shannon said in a telephone interview. Strike Holdings also owns bowling alleys on Long Island and in Maryland and Florida.
"Effectively as of today the PCSC will have no investments in Strike Holdings," Shannon added. The PCSC is a Ramallah-based holding company owned by the PA/PLO.
Later at a news conference at the bowling alley, Shannon said he was feeling "shock and outrage."
"We don't choose to be affiliated with any political-based organization, especially one that may or may not have ties to things we find absolutely abhorrent," Shannon said.
"My relationship with Mr. Masri is over," Shannon said.
"If I had known, I wouldn't have come, but I promised the kids," Steve Saslow, 55, told the Daily News.
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