Attorney General, Al-Siddiq Al-Sour has disclosed a major scam related to public money investment operation. The case is related to the Palladyne International Asset Management portfolio registered in the Netherlands which Al-Sour said has been subject to investigation since 2017.

 “There is an international forensic team formed by the Attorney General's Office which is examining documents, and there is cooperation the Dutch Public Prosecutor, as well as with the Organized Crime Agency in Britain regarding this case,” he noted.

The Attorney General explained that the Libyan Investment Authority, the Libya Africa Portfolio and the Economic Development Fund concluded in 2007 an investment contract with Palladyne International Asset Management under which this company pledged to manage convertible shares and alternative investment bonds worth (700) million US dollars by three companies, established in the Canary Islands for the purpose of owning assets under the name ‘Abrouk A and Abrouk F’ known in 2017, as Palladyne portfolios.

Al-Sour reiterated that the Attorney General’s Office began investigation into the case, five years ago, and that members of the prosecution responsible for the investigation visited the Netherlands to review the documents and memoirs of a former minister, in cooperation with the Dutch financial investigations in the Netherlands, and at a request, the accounts of Palladyne Company officials were frozen, as it deceived Libya and claimed that it was an American company, while it was a company owned by Libyans and was contracted.

The Attorney General pointed out that it became clear that the contract had no investment feasibility and was carried out in return for percentages and commissions for some people and officials, in 2006, and perhaps the tampering and negligence in following up the assets continued in recent years.

Al-Sour further revealed that based on the investigations of the Office of the Attorney’s General in Libya, the Dutch judiciary was asked to freeze the accounts, due to tax evasion by some people, and accordingly ‘We commissioned the (LY) company, a reputable American company specialized in criminal and financial investigations’ he sent on to say.

‘The results came out after two years of hard work, and meetings with LY in several countries by the Office’s prosecutors, and acts of corruption and theft were concluded,’ he added.

 The Attorney General explained that there was a follow-up of some of the funds that were channeled to some people and an American company was assigned to track the money, because the currency was in US dollars, and the case considered a money laundering operation par excellence.

 The Public Prosecutor said, "we have issued internal arrest warrants against these officials, and their names have been placed in the watch list to discover that they are outside Libya’.

‘One of them is in the Netherlands, the other in France, and another person may be in Norway or the UAE, and international arrest warrants have been issued regarding them and ban notices have also been issued against them in recent weeks’ he added.

Al-Sour confirmed that the case is subject of follow-up by the Attorney General's Office and there will be no dereliction, because the amount is estimated at 700 million dollars, in a bank in Germany and Britain, and it is subject to follow-up and measures taken to be placed under guard.