What is Dalia Advisory Limited, you ask? Well, according to a special report in this morning’s Telegraph, it’s apparently a “front company” for the Libyan Investment Authority in London. Why does the LIA or any legitimate institutional investor have need for a front company, you also ask? When it wants to hide its activities. And, to believe the Telegraph article, that is precisely what Libya was trying to do:
Dalia was “…established by Libyan businessmen just a week after the country’s officials were told the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was being considered for release…”
In other words, the Telegraph is suggesting that the establishment of Dalia (which ostensibly will come with lots of Libyan investment in the UK) is recompense (i.e. a bribe) for the release of Al-Megrahi. More details:
“Dalia was incorporated, according to Companies House records, on July 14 last year. A week earlier, at a meeting between Scottish and Libyan officials, Mr MacAskill first discussed the possibility of Megrahi being released on compassionate grounds…”
The Telegraph also cites a “Libyan business source” on Dalia:
“If Megrahi had died, they would have opened elsewhere. I don’t know where but certainly not in London.”
Now, I’m not sure this is all it is cracked up to be, as one man’s “front company” is another man’s “legitimate subsidiary”. But, if the Telegraph is right, then we’ve got some nice geopolitical intrigue going for a Monday. And, apparently, we won’t have to wait long to learn more about Dalia:
“In Washington this week, the timing of the establishment of Dalia, run by an associate of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s favourite son Saif, will come under the scrutiny of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a wide-ranging hearing…”
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