Qaddafi Was Worth More Than $200 Billion By Far The Richest Person In The World

As Libya takes stock, Moammar Kadafi's hidden riches astound
New estimates of the former leader's assets — more than $200 billion — are called 'staggering.' If they prove true, he would rank among the world's most rapacious leaders.


A revolutionary fighter exits the drainage pipe in Surt where Moammar Kadafi the day before was found and later killed. Revelations of Kadafi’s hidden wealth may further enrage the Libyan people, about one-third of whom live in poverty. (Esam Omran Al-Fetori, Reuters / October 21, 2011)


By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

October 21, 2011, 6:53 p.m.
Reporting from Washington—
Moammar Kadafi secretly salted away more than $200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, about $30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected, according to senior Libyan officials.

The new estimates of the deposed dictator's hidden cash, gold reserves and investments are "staggering," one person who has studied detailed records of the asset search said Friday. "No one truly appreciated the scope of it."

If the values prove accurate, Kadafi will go down in history as one of the most rapacious as well as one of the most bizarre world leaders, on a scale with the late Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire or the late Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.

Kadafi's death after he was captured Thursday outside his birthplace, the coastal town of Surt, not only all but ended the armed uprising that erupted in February. Revelation of the stunning size of the portfolio may stir anger among Libya's 6.5 million people — about one-third of whom live in poverty.

Though Kadafi's foreign investments would seem to offer a bonanza for the transitional government, it is struggling to reclaim the money because of legal barriers created by a U.N. freeze on Libyan assets and national laws designed to ensure seized assets are only released to the legal owner.

U.S. and European authorities said Friday that they intended to quickly hand over frozen assets to the transitional Libyan government. But so far, the U.N. has authorized release of only $1.5 billion from accounts in the U.S., and the Obama administration has turned over $700 million of that amount, said Marti Adams, a Treasury Department spokeswoman.

Some African nations were reluctant to freeze Libyan accounts at all because of their loyalty to Kadafi. Others feared that freezing Libyan assets could hurt their domestic economies as bills and workers went unpaid.

During his 42 years in power, Kadafi steered aid and investment to benefit his own family and tribe, but denied support for much of the country, especially the eastern region that historically resisted his family's despotic grip on power.

Obama administration officials were stunned last spring when they found $37 billion in Libyan regime accounts and investments in the United States, and they quickly froze the assets before Kadafi or his aides could move them.

Governments in France, Italy, England and Germany seized control of another $30 billion or so. Investigators estimated that Kadafi had stashed perhaps another $30 billion elsewhere in the world, for a total of about $100 billion.

But subsequent investigations by American, European and Libyan authorities determined that Kadafi secretly sent tens of billions more abroad over the years and made sometimes lucrative investments in nearly every major country, including much of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, officials said Friday.

Most of the money was under the name of government institutions such as the Central Bank of Libya, the Libyan Investment Authority, the Libyan Foreign Bank, the Libyan National Oil Corp. and the Libya African Investment Portfolio. But investigators said Kadafi and his family members could access any of the money if they chose to.

The new $200 billion figure is about double the prewar annual economic output of Libya, which has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa.

Officials of the transitional government point to the secret transfer of so much wealth as proof that Kadafi, who once gave himself the title "King of Kings," had imperial ambitions for himself but little concern for most Libyans.

Kadafi was sending vast sums abroad "at a time when Libyans were struggling for the money they needed for schools, hospitals and all sorts of infrastructure," said one person close to the council, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing.

Investigators believe Kadafi's foreign investments accelerated in recent years. Almost all the assets and accounts found in the United States were from the last four or five years, after Kadafi surrendered a nascent nuclear weapons program and moved toward restoring full diplomatic relations with Washington.

In addition to the vast foreign investments, Kadafi is believed to have amassed billions of dollars in gold reserves inside Libya, possibly for use in case his rule was threatened. Western authorities believe Kadafi and his aides secretly maneuvered to bring some of the cash back to Tripoli to help pay for their war effort.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told an NBC interviewer Thursday that rebel forces had worried that Kadafi could still "be recruiting mercenaries, paying with the gold they believe he had absconded with."

Western officials have struggled all year not only to identify Kadafi's money but also to convince countries such as India, China and Russia to seize Libyan investments as required by a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Investigations last spring found Libyan regime investments in several high-profile Western ventures, including the Italian soccer club Juventus, the Italian bank UniCredit and the British publisher Pearson, which owns the Financial Times newspaper.

Officials now believe other assets include accounts held by Kadafi family members with money drawn from national oil sales.

Steven Cook, a Mideast specialist at the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, said it was known that Kadafi had invested heavily in nearby African nations, since he sought to build and lead a pan-African alliance.

"But all this, of course, goes way beyond that," Cook said.

Alan Smithee wrote:Well I hope that money can be recovered and used to help all the Libyan people. But I also wish all the world was driving solar powered cars.

CeCe wrote:

And that there would be liberty & justice & peace on earth forevermore. But yeah...and since Libya will now be living under sharia law they won't be any better off. But I guess the people in charge will be livin' large. Just like before & just as bad.

Alan Smithee wrote:

"Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss"
(smashing guitars and drum kits)

Alan Smithee wrote:Does anyone know if they got that shit bag who did the Pan am 103 Lockerbie bombing? The one Great Britain released on "humanitarian" grounds because he only had a few months to live. Humanitarion reasons as well as BP wanted a piece of Libyan oil.

Lockerbie Bomber Seen On TV Rally


PRESS ASSOCIATION -- The man convicted of killing 270 people in the Lockerbie bombing has been seen on Libyan television.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison almost two years ago on compassionate grounds, after serving nearly eight years of a 27-year sentence.

Four days before Christmas in 1988, the Pan Am Flight 103 travelling from London to New York was targeted in a bomb attack, causing it to crash in Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway.

In footage seen by the BBC on Tuesday night, a television presenter introduced Megrahi at what appears to be a pro-government rally, and said his conviction was the result of a "conspiracy". He also said his release had been a victory against oppression.

It was reported that during the apparently live broadcast, Megrahi was in a wheelchair.

Megrahi returned to Libya after being freed in August 2009. He had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and the Scottish Government released him on compassionate grounds after judging that he had about three months to live. He has rarely been seen since his return.

John Lamont, Scottish Conservative MSP and a member of the Justice Committee, said: "The last thing relatives of the 270 people murdered by the Lockerbie Bomber need to see is the sight of him alive and well and free, almost two years after he was released by the SNP Government. It was a bad decision made badly and one that shames Scotland around the world. The day is fast approaching when the SNP Government will have to apologise for this terrible decision."

Margaret Scott, Megrahi's defence QC, told appeal judges at the time that his "absolute priority in the little time he has left is to spend it with his family in his homeland".

The decision to free him came on August 20, 2009, in an announcement from Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. But his release was met with widespread criticism, with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton branding it "absolutely wrong".

Of the 270 victims, 189 were American. Eleven residents of Lockerbie also died, after the plane crashed down on their homes.


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/07/27/lockerbie-bomber-seen-on-_n_910530.html