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Libyan sovereign wealth fund sues Goldman Sachs: ‘Our bankers hired prostitutes, doled out vacations to lead fund into $1.2B loss’

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"109460728"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><section id&equals;"ra-top"><&sol;section>&NewLine;<div id&equals;"ra-wrap">&NewLine;<header id&equals;"ra-headers">&NewLine;<h3 id&equals;"ra-headline"><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;2b0404&semi;"><strong>Goldman Sachs hired prostitutes&comma; doled out vacations to lead Libyan <span class&equals;"caption-text">sovereign wealth <&sol;span> fund into &dollar;1&period;2B loss&comma; lawsuit says <&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;2b0404&semi;"><strong>Libyan sovereign wealth fund files suing Goldman Sachs bankersof unerhical practices<br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;2b0404&semi;"><strong>Accuses bank of leading them &lbrack;Libyan fund&rsqb; into a &dollar;1&period;2 billion loss by feting them with prostitutes&comma; vacations and other gifts&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;2b0404&semi;"><strong>Libyan Investment Authority LIA says &&num;8216&semi;Goldman Sachs behaved like a  &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;bank of mafiosa” and took in &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;eyewatering” profits over &dollar;200 million&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<&sol;header>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-33606" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;lia1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"lia1&period;jpg" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"271" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Libya under Colonel Muammar Gadhafi  entrusted &dollar;1&period;3 billion through its sovereign wealth fund to Goldman Sachs in 2007&comma; of which the investment bank lost approximately 98&percnt;&comma; sparking the ire of Libyan officials&period;  The fascinating drama includes Goldman offering Libya preferred equity and debt which could’ve made it one of the investment bank’s largest shareholders during the onset of the crisis&comma; as well as Libya’s sovereign wealth fund&comma; the Libyan Investment Authority &lpar;LIA&rpar;&comma; was among many funds set up by emerging economies to grow their export-based riches&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-33557" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;goldman-sachs2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"goldman sachs2" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"372" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;Now a lawsuit the fund accuses Goldman Sachs bankers of leading their Libyan clients into a &dollar;1&period;2 billion loss by feting them with prostitutes&comma; vacations and other gifts&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Attorneys for the Libyan Investment Authority&comma; a sovereign wealth fund said Monday in High Court in London&comma; UK that the multinational banking giant behaved like a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;bank of mafiosa” and took in &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;eyewatering” profits over &dollar;200 million&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6><strong><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-33590" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;ceo-lia-abdulmagid-breish&period;jpg" alt&equals;"CEO LIA&comma; AbdulMagid Breish" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"499" &sol;>Chairman and CEO of LIA Abdul-Magid Breish<&sol;strong><&sol;h6>&NewLine;<p>Representatives for Goldman have rejected the allegations in the lawsuit first filed two years ago&comma; blaming the fund’s losses in nine 2008 trades on the worldwide financial crisis&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Yet a former Goldman banker spent &dollar;31&comma;000 on a single &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;training” trip to London for LIA officials that included lavish entertainment and rooms at &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;stylish hotels&comma;” according to court documents&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The same banker&comma; who has denied wrongdoing&comma; took an intern who is the brother of a onetime deputy chief at LIA on several vacations to Morocco&comma; the lawsuit said&period; He also took the intern to a conference in Dubai&comma; arranging business-class flights&comma; five-star lodging and prostitutes for the two of them&comma; according to the lawsuit&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The gifts concealed inappropriately risky investments in derivatives linked with stocks in Citigroup&comma; the French utility EDF and other companies&comma; the lawsuit said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Internal Goldman emails and messages disclosed Monday described the LIA as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;very unsophisticated” and Goldman&&num;8217&semi;s discussions with the fund as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a pitch on structured leveraged loans to someone who lives in the middle of the desert with his camels&comma;” court filings showed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6><strong><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-33554" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;gadaffi1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gadaffi1" width&equals;"682" height&equals;"400" &sol;> Libyan leader Muammar set a program to diversify country&&num;8217&semi;s portfilio<&sol;strong><&sol;h6>&NewLine;<article id&equals;"ra-body">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This case is therefore one of abuse of trust&comma; undue influence and unconscionable bargain&comma;” LIA attorney Roger Masefield said in court documents&period; &&num;8220&semi;It most emphatically is not&comma; therefore&comma; as Goldman Sachs would have it&comma; one of little more than &OpenCurlyQuote;buyer’s remorse&semi;’ of a counterparty who&comma; like many others&comma; lost money as a result of the market crash in 2008 and now wants to rewind the clock&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Attorneys for Goldman have said the LIA&comma; which severed ties with the bank after the trades&comma; deserves all the blame for the billion-dollar losses&period;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The LIA selected the underlying stocks based on its own research&comma; conducted over weeks or months&comma; and did so because&comma; like other Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds&comma; it thought they were undervalued&comma;” said a court filing by the bank&period; The trial began Monday and is slated to last around seven weeks&comma; with LIA seeking all &dollar;1&period;2 billion it lost back from Goldman&period; The violence-torn country’s fund&comma; which is itself the subject of dispute between chairmen representing several factions in Libya&comma; still boasts &dollar;67 billion in assets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;article>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"border-radius&colon;2px&semi;text-indent&colon;20px&semi;width&colon;auto&semi;padding&colon;0 4px 0 0&semi;text-align&colon;center&semi;font&colon;bold 11px&sol;20px 'Helvetica Neue'&comma; Helvetica&comma; sans-serif&semi;color&colon;&num;ffffff&semi;background&colon;&num;bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50&percnt; &sol; 14px 14px&semi;position&colon;absolute&semi;opacity&colon;&period;85&semi;z-index&colon;8675309&semi;display&colon;none&semi;cursor&colon;pointer&semi;top&colon;1519px&semi;left&colon;20px&semi;">Save<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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