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Gaddafi will try to liquidate assets

Tuesday, Mar 01, 2011

Gulf News

Genewa Banker points to attempt to transfer £900m from London to Tripoli

Dubai: A Geneva-based Libyan banker and investment expert warned against illegal liquidation of assets and transfer of precious metals from the European Union and the US to Libya in violation of the UN Security Council resolution issued on Saturday.

“The attempt to transfer £900 million (Dh5.37 billion) from London to Tripoli which was foiled by the monetary authorities in the UK on Sunday was just the start of a series of operations to be conducted by the Libyan Investment Authorities ( LIA ), said Mona Omar.

Mona is also a financial adviser based in London and watchdog expert on illegal investments of Libya around the globe. She told Gulf News yesterday that LIA has been acting as a proxy for illegal financial operations related to Muammar Gaddafi and his family abroad.

“The agency will do its best to liquidate assets and transfer them to Libya at this stage in violation of UNSC Resolution 1970.”

She said LIA has been in charge of managing assets to the value of $50 billion to $70 billion of Libyan funds and has been involved in tricky operations under Saif Al Islam Gaddafi since its formation in August 2006.

She said LIA has huge investments in the US, the EU and countries around the world. “Officials and brokers working with the LIA enjoy a great deal of freedom in moving and liquidating assets under their own names,” she warned.

“ LIA was established to manage Libyan investments around the world, but a huge part of these investments was turned into the personal wealth of members of Gaddafi’s family and their aides as a result of loose and corrupt management by the authority,” she said.

“Leading US and UK banks were paying up to 4 per cent brokerage fees for unregistered Libyan brokers, who were just close friends of Saif in order to secure investments of no less than $350 million per deal at an inflated price. I feel myself free to say that the actual value of the deals conducted by LIA were just at 10 to 20 per cent of the total value of the paid up cash involved in these deals. In most cases the deals conducted by the LIA were win-win for parties involved in the operation and the main actual losers were the people of Libya,” she said.

Mona said a number of shadow men were authorised to manage the assets on behalf of Saif Al Islam who supervised the operation of the LIA .

“Brokers and officials in monetary institutions in both the UK and the US were aware of the situation but did nothing to investigate the operations of the LIA .

“Three men with close relations to Saif Al Islam have enjoyed full authorisation to conduct deals with banks, investment bodies and governments abroad and authorities in the US are fully aware of their activities,” Mona said.

She urged the international community to investigate operations and financial activities of Mustafa Al Zarti, Walid Al Jahmi and Esmael Abu Deher (son-in-law of Oil Minister Shukri Ganim), for any violation of the UN Security Council resolution regarding freezing of Gaddafi assets around the world.

“The three men in addition to others were responsible for management of Gaddafi’s direct investments conducted under the umbrella of the LIA ,” she said.

Mona said Gaddafi badly needs to liquidate investments and transfer them to Tripoli at this time.

“Payment for mercenaries and tribes that will be ready to hide him if Tripoli becomes unsafe for him will cost a lot of money. The storm was unexpected for Gaddafi and his family and I am sure that they will do anything to get even part of their investments abroad,” she said.

By Duraid Al Baik, Associate Editor

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