Libyan fund rivals dispute panel’s bid

A PROTRACTED power struggle over Libya’s $67 billion (R918bn) sovereign wealth fund risks becoming even more complicated as rival claimants for its chairmanship challenge a bid for control by a UN-backed government in Tripoli.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) has been under UN sanctions since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Security Council has extended sanctions until July, with diplomats saying they want to see a stable government before relaxing them.

The LIA was one of several institutions to split after rival governments and parliaments were set up in 2014 in Tripoli and in eastern Libya. Now a government mandated by a UN-brokered deal is trying to unite Libya’s factions, and take control of the LIA.

Those contesting authority over the fund said its assets and interests were at risk if managed by the wrong people.

Last month, the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) appointed a steering committee tasked with overseeing the fund, including its $3.3bn claims in London courts seeking to recover funds from Goldman Sachs and Société Générale.

But AbdulMagid Breish, who was appointed chairman in 2013, has resisted the committee’s efforts to sideline him.

“We have an absolute mishmash, a chaotic situation that is duplicated in many other government entities,” he said.

Breish launched a court challenge against the appointment of the steering committee arguing that it was not legitimate because the GNA’s Presidential Council had yet to be endorsed by the eastern parliament.

The chairman of the eastern LIA, Fawzi Omran Farkash, had brought a parallel case against the committee, Breish said. Farkash could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman for the eastern government, Haitem al-Oraiby, said “any decision taken by the Presidential Council is unlawful… the new head of the steering committee is unlawful”.

‘Rogue actions’

A spokeswoman representing the LIA under the steering committee, Claire Davidson, said the committee, appointed by a UN-mandated government, was needed to prevent “rogue actions” or any unlicensed attempts to control the LIA and its assets.

Breish refused to co-operate with a handover team that came to the LIA’s offices, telling them “if the court says ‘yes they (the steering committee) are legal’, then I will… hand over, and absolve myself”.

The steering committee said Breish had illegally reappointed himself after resigning in 2014. Breish said he had stepped aside for 10 months after facing a legal challenge, and that the Presidential Council lacked the authority to replace him. – Reuters