Over $10 billion from seized Gaddafi funds missing

About $10 billion were reported by Belgian authorities to be missing from frozen Libyan funds, which were controlled by the inner circle of former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

Four separate accounts opened for the Libyan Investment Authority and Libyan Foreign Investment Company in the Euroclear bank held over $16 billion after an investigation into money laundering sought to seize the assets.

The Belgian authorities found the disappearance of a significant part of these funds in the fall of 2017. It turned out that in the four accounts just over $5 billion dollars remained.

The investigation into billions of Gaddafi assets held in Belgium discovered big, regular outflows of stock dividends, bond income, and interest payments, while legal documents, bank statements, emails and dozens of interviews point to a loophole in the sanctions regime.

According to the Ministry of Finance, Belgium did not take any decision to unfreeze the assets.