Bermuda Firm Was Awarded Libya Contracts
A Bermuda-registered company chaired by the brother of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief of staff won multi-million pound contracts from the Libyan regime shortly after the then UK leader normalised relations between the two countries in 2004.
According to a 2009 investigative report by Britain’s “Daily Telegraph”, Hamilton-registered Magna Holdings — which had already built hotels and office blocks in the Libyan capital Tripoli — was being considered by now-embattled leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi to develop a tourism infrastructure along the North African country’s Mediterranean coast.
Magna Holdings also constructed “Gaddafi Tower” in Tripoli as one of a number of earlier contracts worth £175 million. The 50-storey development is jointly owned by Magna Holdings and Libya’s Oganisation for Charity Works, which is run by Col. Gaddafi’s daughter.
“Magna Holdings, which is registered in Hamilton, Bermuda is chaired by Lord Powell, the brother of Jonathan Powell, Mr. Blair’s chief of staff when he was at No10. Mr Powell has continued to work alongside the former Prime Minister over the past two years,” reported the newspaper. “Lord Powell, a former aide to Baroness Thatcher, also advised Mr. Blair. One of Magna Holding’s major backers is Wafic Said, a British-based billionaire linked to a bribery scandal [that Mr. Blair intervened in to halt a] Serious Fraud Office inquiry …
“One of Mr Blair’s final acts as Prime Minister was to sign a controversial co-operation agreement with Col. Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, that opened trade links for British firms … It was previously thought that oil companies would be the main beneficiaries. However, Magna Holdings is one of the main players in the development of Libya’s tourism industry.”
Although tourism was in its infancy in that country prior to the outbreak of an ongoing popular revolution against the Gaddafi regime, it was expected to develp into a multi-billion-pound industry drawing sun-seeking visitors from across Europe .
Mr. Blair played a vital role in Col. Gadhafi’s international rehabilitation after Libya had been isolated from the international community for more than a decade because of its suspected involvement in the 1988 bombing which brought down a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The former British leader flew to Libya in 2004, holding talks with Col. Gaddafi inside a Bedouin tent [pictured]. He praised Col. Gaddafi for suspending Libya’s nuclear and chemical weapons programme and stressed the need for new security alliances in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States. British commercial deals soon followed.
Magna Holdings does not publish public accounts and many of its shareholders comprise of front companies or trusts registered in other off-shore jurisdictions, said the “Telegraph,”.
However, the newspaper confirmed the Bermuda firm has three main shareholders — Mr Said; Och Ziff, a hedge fund based in New York; and a Middle-Eastern property developer.
The company was formed in Bermuda in June, 2004 — three months after Mr. Blair restored ties between Britain and Libya. It signed its first deal with the Libyan regime shortly afterwards.
The “Telegraph” quoted a Magna Holdings spokesman as denying that Mr. Blair or his former chief of staff Mr. Powell had been involved in helping to secure Libyan contracts for the firm. “There is no involvement at all,” he said.
A spokesman for Mr. Blair said neither he nor Mr. Powell had been involved with discussions on Magna Holdings.
The British Cabinet Office refused to answer the “Telegraph’s” questions about whether Magna Holdings or its representatives attended meetings in Downing Street between 2004 and 2007.
