Assets Frozen: How Rich Is (Was) Libyan Tyrant Gaddafi?
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 2, 2011
When it was reported that tyrannical Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s assets are being frozen across the world, I had no idea how mind-bogglingly vast those assets, that staggering wealth, would be.
Much more than you and your family — more than your circle of friends and everyone on your block — would likely earn collectively in a lifetime or two.
Stunning.
Mail Online reports — The dictator’s dough: Astonishing wealth of Gaddafi and his family revealed:
The astonishing wealth of Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi and his family has been laid bare as countries around the world begin freezing billions of dollars worth of their assets.
The U.S. alone has seized $30billion (£18.5bn) of their investments, while Canada has frozen $2.4bn (£1.5bn), Austria, $1.7bn (£1bn) and the UK, $1bn ($600m).
These assets appear to be just the tip of the iceberg, as no one is yet certain exactly what the family owns around the world.
But they include an enormous portfolio of properties in the West End theatre and shopping district of London – worth $455m (£280m) as well as $325m (£200m) in shares in Pearson, the owner of the Financial Times and Penguin books.
The assets also include a $15million luxury mansion in an affluent suburb of North London.
Nestled among the homes of TV presenters and actors is the eight-bed home with a swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi and suede-lined cinema room.
From AsiaOne, Britain freezes Gaddafi’s assets:
Britain Sunday froze the assets that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family have held in the European country, the Foreign Office said.
“The government has today taken action to freeze the assets of Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi (Gaddafi), members of his family and those acting on their behalf or at their direction,” the statement said.
Britain understands that Gaddafi owns around 20 billion pounds (S$40 billion) in liquid assets, mostly in London, according to the Telegraph newspaper.
“I have today taken action to freeze the assets…so that they cannot be used against the interests of the Libyan people,” British finance minister George Osborne said in the statement.
“This follows the UN Security Council Resolution tabled by the UK and France,” Osborne continued. “I decided to implement this UN resolution in the UK as quickly as possible, before the financial markets reopened.
“This is a strong message for the Libyan regime that violence against its own people is not acceptable,” Osborne added.
British Prime Minister David Cameron later Sunday promised Gaddafi that he would use all the powers at his disposal to try to force the Libyan leader from power, telling him it was “time to go”.
“We are now putting serious pressure on this regime,” Cameron said. “The travel ban and the asset freeze are the measures we are taking against the regime to show just how isolated they are.
“There is no future for Libya that includes him,” Cameron warned.
The Foreign Office statement warned financial institutions that the treasury would monitor compliance “rigorously”.
According to reports, Gaddafi’s British assets include bank accounts, commercial property and a 10 million-pound London home.
Britain’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills also signed an order to prohibit the export of uncirculated Libyan banknotes without a licence from the UK.
The British action follows that taken by Washington, which signed an order freezing the Libyan leader’s US assets earlier Sunday.
From Ahram Online, Spain freezes Gaddafi assets – Holdings include 7,000 hectare property on Costa del Sol:
Spain announced Wednesday it was freezing assets owned by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s regime, including a vast tract of land on the Costa del Sol.
The decision tightens a global financial chokehold on Gaddafi’s regime, its assets already blocked in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Britain, Austria and Germany.
“We will proceed with the embargo or freezing of Gaddafi’s assets in Spain,” a government spokesman said.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez announced the decision to journalists as she accompanied Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on a flight to Tunisia, said the spokesman, who was present.
Zapatero will be the first Western leader to visit Tunisia since the ouster of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia January 14 in the face of an uprising against his 23-year rule.
The Libyan regime’s assets in Spain include a 7,065-hectare (17,450-acre) property on the Costa del Sol in Andalucia, acquired in 1995 by the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank, which is owned in turn by Libya’s central bank.
The purchase of the property known as La Resinera reportedly made the Libyan regime one of the main land-owners on the Costa del Sol.
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