Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/838705
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 18 JUNE 2017 9 News UN experts say €10 million in Gaddafi cash in Malta went missing MATTHEW VELLA €10 million in cash that the son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi held in Mal- tese companies could have gone missing when war broke out in the North African state, according to a panel of experts on Libya set up by the United Nations's Se- curity Council. The experts are analysing the bank ac- counts of three suspected, and inter- linked, front companies that the late Muatassim Gaddafi used in Malta – all set up for him by Joe Sammut, who in the past had acted as a treasurer for the La- bour Party. The first, Mezen International, was closed in June 2010, with the remaining balance of over €55 million transferred to a second company, Capital Resources Limited. The company's accounts in Mal- ta were frozen under the Libyan sanc- tions. However, the main source of funding for the Mezen account in 2010 was a third company, Moncada International Limited – registered at Sammut's Mosta address – which transferred over €40 mil- lion that year in three instalments. In addition, Moncada received €3 mil- lion from Mezen two weeks before the latter closed its account. Moncada was struck off the companies register in Sep- tember 2013. According to the panel of experts, be- tween 26 February and 14 July, 2011, €10 million was transferred out of the Mon- cada account, which was never frozen. The panel has recently written to Malta to underscore "that it is crucial to trace that money and investigate its origin". The playboy son of Colonel Gaddafi died in the Battle of Sirte after being cap- tured by anti-Gaddafi forces on 20 Octo- ber, 2011, shortly before being executed along with his father. He was 36. Now the Libyan Attorney General – one of the few executive offices that enjoy the recognition of both the Tobruk and Trip- oli governments in strife-torn Libya – is trying to take ownership of Muatassim's wealth held by his Maltese companies. Libya's claims are being opposed by Sa- fia Farkash Gaddafi, the 63-year-old wid- ow of Muammar Gaddafi, now living in Oman with sons Hannibal and Moham- mad, and daughter Aisha. Safia Farkash's lawyer, Charilos Oikono- mopoulos, is opposing the Attorney Gen- eral's claims to the "millions" that could be held under Muatassim's companies, Capital Resources and Mezen Interna- tional. Under Islamic law, she would be entitled to one-sixth of her son's wealth, but she is under UN sanctions that froze an estimated €25 billion in state and per- sonal assets she controlled. Oikonomopoulos also claimed that Muatassim Gaddafi had another heir: his hitherto unknown wife Lisa van Goinga, a Dutch glamour model, and her son. There has been no reliable confirmation of the veracity of Oikonomopoulos's claims. The Libyan Attorney General says that Capital Resources Ltd has assets far in excess of what it could have legitimately earned, besides the fact that Muatassim Gaddafi, as an officer in the Libyan Ar- my, was prohibited from engaging in any business activities under martial law and had not disclosed all of his assets and in- vestments to the army, as was required of all Libyan Army officers. The Libyan state requested that all shares in Capital Resources Ltd be re- stored to Libya, claiming that they belong to the troubled North African nation and had been held by Gaddafi's inner circle "on trust basis". Oikonomopoulos claims that Muatassim Gaddafi should be struck off the UN sanctions list because he is in fact dead. "Muatassim seems to remain, post mortem, a threat to international peace and security. His name is still on the list of the UN Security Council Resolution 1970 on Libya… for this reason, the fam- ily he created without time to enjoy it, has to endure poverty, in hiding, in ano- nymity, in constant risk of extinction," he wrote in the Huffington Post. He also wrote of Safia Farkash's "frus- tration, anger and embarrassment", alleg- edly living on "less than a thousand US dollars to spare" while still being present- ed as being worth billions. But the Maltese government's Sanc- tions Committee Monitoring Board has refused to unfreeze an undisclosed five- figure sum from Muatassim Gaddafi's es- tate, so the family can pay legal costs. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt The late Muammar Gaddafi and his son Muatassim. The UN panel has recently written to Malta to underscore "that it is crucial to trace" the missing €10 million and its origin