Thursday, 26 May 2011

FT.com - Brief tryst ends in cold storage

Muammer Gaddafi’s Libya put its people’s oil wealth in ventures ranging from chicken farms to volatile currency plays, according to a confidential document that shows how fully the much criticised regime had shed its pariah status before civil war broke out.

The internal report on the investments of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, is peppered with the names of big banks and hedge funds, which critics say should have been more cautious given the Libyan government’s longstanding reputation as a venal and ruthless family fiefdom.

While some of the institutions named in the document might now regret being so publicly linked to the LIA, they might also point out that they were breaking no laws and were merely part of broader international rush to a rehabilitated regime.

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