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A Libyan company is claiming $1bn (£620m, €783m) from the Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs for taking it “for a complete ride” by directing its money into worthless transactions.
The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) states in its lawsuit that Goldman encouraged it to put more than $1bn into equity derivatives trades in 2008, near the end of the Gaddafi years. The investment was worth nothing by 2011.
The LIA, a government-owned sovereign wealth fund, says Goldman seduced its staff with gifts and bribes, took them on a “lavish trip to Morocco” involving heavy drinking and girls, and provided “expensive nights out in London”.
Goldman’s court documents admit that the bank used an internship, training, small gifts, occasional travel and entertainment to cement a “strategic partnership”, but deny encouraging the LIA to enter into the transactions.
The bank says that in better market conditions the LIA would have made large gains.
The UK High Court has already awarded the LIA an interim payment of £200,000 ($320,000, €252,000) in court costs.
The court will hear the case in 2016.
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