Details have just emerged about Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s stash of €38 billion in cash and assets in European and American banks and investments in multinational companies.

A document leaked to international anti-corruption organisation Global Witness shows that, until the end of last June, Col Gaddafi’s Libyan Investment Authority held cash accounts in many top European banks, including HSBC.

The Libyan authority had its assets frozen through EU sanctions. The document details the whereabouts of state oil revenues.

It gives no information on other investments held by the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company Ltd (Lafico), a subsidiary of LIA, which has business interests in Malta, including in Corinthia, Vivaldi and Milano Due hotels, Medavia and Medelec.

However, it gives precise details of all LIA’s assets and shows that the Libyan government’s investment arm, considered to be controlled by the Gaddafi family, has a finger in many multinational companies through equity or bonds.

The biggest European bank keeping Col Gaddafi’s money is France’s financial services company Société Générale, which, until last June, had $1.8 billion held in various accounts.

HSBC, a global bank also present in Malta, held $239 million in current accounts and another $275 million in hedge funds while US investment bank Goldman Sachs held $182 million. Other significant accounts were held by the Royal Bank of Scotland, totalling $110 million.

Global Witness asked HSBC and Goldman Sachs to confirm they held funds belonging to LIA and whether they were still in their care. They both refused, with HSBC citing client confidentiality.

“It is completely absurd that banks like these can hide behind customer confidentiality in a case like this. These are state accounts, so the customer is effectively the Libyan people and these banks are withholding vital information from them,” Global Witness director Charmian Gooch said on the NGO’s website.

The document also reveals a raft of investments held by Libya in many multinationals.

Among the strategic investments, LIA held a 13 per cent equity in Italy’s Unicredit SPA bank, nine per cent in the Italian energy company ENI, nine per cent in Siemens and six per cent in Pearson PLC, the world’s leading education services’ company.

The information shows LIA holds substantial shares in many large international companies such as Nokia, BASF, Rypsol, General Electric and BP.

Following the introduction of the sanctions, aimed at freezing the assets of Col Gaddafi and his family, Malta withheld millions of euros in cash and investments. However, the Finance Ministry has kept details of such assets under wraps.

Meanwhile, more pressure is being mounted on Libya’s leadership to resign, as the country’s representative to the EU defected yesterday.

Ambassador Hadeiba Hadi, resident in Brussels for the past years, defected with all his staff. “After more than four months of the blood-letting of our people, my colleagues and myself at the Libyan Bureau in Brussels find ourselves obliged to announce our decision to no longer represent the regime,” Mr Hadi said.

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