Britain’s Court of Appeal has refused Libya’s $67 billion sovereign wealth fund (SWF) the right to appeal against the 2016 judgment handed down by Britain’s High Court in the SWF's $1.2 billion case against Goldman Sachs.
The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) lost the 2016 case, which related to nine equity derivatives investments carried out in 2008 that turned out to be worthless, indicating that the SWF was too unsophisticated to understand what it was buying, and that Goldman had abused its position as a trusted advisor, however; the trial judge dismissed these claims.
Meanwhile, the LIA sought permission to appeal, but in the order of the Court of Appeal, Judge Launcelot Henderson refused the request.
Relevantly, a spokesman for the LIA said the fund was considering its options, while Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
In the meantime, one of the grounds the LIA had cited as the basis for an appeal related to an internship offered by Goldman Sachs to Haitem Zarti, the younger brother of Mustafa Zarti, a key LIA decision-maker at the time the trades were carried out, but Judge Henderson said the LIA’s arguments in this regard had no real prospect of success.
Judge Henderson added that the LIA has got no right to advance a new case that the offer of the internship constituted a bribe as a matter of law.
