Enforcement lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission are reviewing documents that detail the firms’ relationships with the Libyan Investment Authority controlled by Col. Moammar Gadhafi, these people said.
Among other things, SEC officials are interested in a $50 million fee Goldman initially agreed to pay the Libyan sovereign-wealth fund as part of a proposal by the New York company to help the fund recoup losses, according to these people. The Libyan Investment Authority would have passed on the $50 million payment to an outside adviser, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.
That outside adviser, Palladyne International Asset Management BV, was run at the time by the son-in-law of the head of Libya’s state-owned oil company.
The $50 million payment was never made, because discussions between Goldman and the sovereign-wealth fund stalled before violence erupted in Libya in February, according to people familiar with the matter.
But the fact the payment wasn’t made doesn’t exempt it from the U.S. anticorruption law, known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law bans U.S. companies from offering or paying bribes to foreign government officials or employees of state-owned companies. The restrictions include people working for sovereign-wealth funds.
Continue here: Eyes on Goldman-Libya Dealings – WSJ.com.
