24-Oct-2011 11:16

Qaddafi Worth $200+ Billion-World’s Richest Man?

Qaddafi was supposedly worth over $200 billion with assets in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world.

This staggeringly large estimate is from senior Libyan officials & if, as seems to be legitimate according to the LA Times, would quite incredibly make Muammar Qaddafi 3 x richer than Carlos Slim and 10 x richer than King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

So, how did he amass his riches?

Certainly for the past 41 years Qaddafi had personal and total control over the largest oil reserves in Africa.

However, unlike most other oil-rich leaders Qaddafi invested little money in infrastructure - schools and hospitals - or any kind of economic diversification.

While much of his money was held by government institutions (controlled of course by him and his cohorts) Qaddafi was able to withdraw money at will.

In addition to the vast foreign investments, Qaddafi is believed to have amassed billions of dollars in gold reserves inside Libya, possibly for use in case his rule was threatened.

So, can a new Libyan regime get their hands on his riches?

Well, although his foreign investments would seem to offer a bonanza for the transitional government, it is struggling to reclaim the money because of legal barriers created by a U.N. freeze on Libyan assets.

U.S. and European authorities have said that they intended to hand over frozen assets to the transitional Libyan government.
But so far, the U.N. has authorized release of only $1.5 billion from accounts in the U.S., and the Obama administration has turned over $700 million of that amount, said Marti Adams, a Treasury Department spokeswoman.

The biggest question of course may simply be, “Can we trust anyone at the moment in Libya and indeed who is currently or perhaps more importantly, who will be in charge?”