JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and six other large banks may have information about billions of dollars looted from Libya by its former dictator Moammar Al Qaddafi, the Libya government said in a subpoena application.
In a filing Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the Libyan Asset Recovery and Management Office said it believes that money stolen by Qaddafi, his family and associates was transferred through Bank of America, UBS Group, HSBC Holdings, Credit Suisse Group, Bank of New York Mellon and Deutsche Bank, along with Citi and JPMorgan.
“LARMO currently estimates that at least tens of billions of dollars’ worth of assets belonging to the Libyan people were stolen by Qaddafi and his agents and remain missing,” it said in the filing, which sought permission to subpoena records from the banks.
The effort could become the largest international asset recovery in history, the agency’s lawyers said in a statement Thursday.
Decades in power
Qaddafi ruled Libya from 1969 to 2011, when he was killed in a U.S.-backed uprising. His son, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, is now a candidate in the oil-rich North African country’s first-ever presidential election on Dec. 24.
LARMO was set up in 2017, with the support of the United Nations and European Union, to recover assets stolen from the Libyan state during Qaddafi’s four decades in power, the lawyers said. It’s trying to track down money looted through corrupt business deals and embezzlement of government funds.
The case is Ex Parte Application of Libyan Asset Recovery and Management Office, 21-mc-00852, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
