Tripoli— In another case of corruption in Libya that this time involves a German arms manufacturing company, the Public Prosecutor has ordered on Saturday evening the detention of a former chairman of Libyana Mobile Phone (LMP) for further investigation, according to a statement by the General Prosecutor’s Office.
The Prosecutor said it investigated the transfer of 17 million Euros from the LMP’s account in an Italian bank to the account of a subsidiary firm owned by the parent company, which transferred the same amount to the account of a company registered in Switzerland.
Then the amount was used in the “purchase of shares in an arms manufacturing company in Germany,” the statement said.
However, the Prosecutor General, in its statement, did not name the former director of LMP, the Swiss bank nor the name of the German arms manufacturing company. It also order the investigation of other individuals who were involved in this corruption scandal.
The investigator said it found that those responsible for the transference of the money failed to properly follow the legal procedures “by concealing from the executive departments and the oversight body the text of the agreement to lend the parent company the aforementioned sum.” The prosecutor said the transfers were made without providing any guarantees to mitigate the risks.
Furthermore, the prosecutor accused the former LMP’s officials of interfering “in authorizing the transfer of the funds to the Swiss company’s account, despite knowing that the investment of the money for purposes other than those specified in the lending company’s articles of association would have negative repercussions for the public interest.”
Libyana Mobile Phone was established in 2004 as a subsidiary of the government-owned Libyan Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology Company (LPTIC) and became a major mobile phone operator holding the largest share of the market with over 6.3 million subscribers in the country, according to its website. LPTIC controls all of Libya’s major telecommunications and internet service providers.
In July 2022, the Attorney General (AG) demanded that the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) freeze LMP’s bank accounts at four branches of the Bank of Commerce and Development’s (BCD), following investigations into allegations appeared in a complaint filed by the company’s own legal representative.
The AG’s move aimed to “preserve the public interest and to protect the LMP’s financial position which was at risk at the time due to unauthorized practices made by the Board of Directors of two of the branches and in violation of rules of data registration with Commercial Register.
The branches that were subject to the AG’s attention included BCD’s Main Branch in Tripoli, two in Ben Ashour area also in Tripoli and one in Misrata.