2024-04-09 09:47:42
An investigative report on the “Eyewitness” program on Estonian television revealed that millions of euros owned by the Libyan state and which were in the Central Bank of Libya branch in Benghazi ended up being laundered and used in Estonia.
The investigation concluded that approximately 80 million euros of the bank’s money had already been damaged by the water “to the point that it could not be spent in the usual way,” indicating that most of the good money was spent on waging wars, according to Estonian television.
During the investigation, the head of the Estonian Anti-Money Laundering Office, Matthijs Maker, said, “It is possible that the money that arrived in Estonia was damaged in the Benghazi Central Bank branch, when water flooded the safes.”
The head of the Monetary and Infrastructure Department at the Bank of Estonia, Wright Rusev, explained, “The water was definitely not tap water or drinking water, nor rainwater either. It was biologically contaminated water, for sure,” indicating that the water that flooded the money was likely sewage.
“Some of these mutilated paper money found their way to Estonia,” he added. “It also needs to be washed, literally and figuratively.”
Seven years ago, Libyan media wondered about the fate of the funds of the Central Bank of Libya in Benghazi, after Khalifa Haftar’s forces took control of the bank’s headquarters, immediately after the withdrawal of the fighters of the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Libya branch in Al-Bayda, Ali Al-Habri, previously denied seizing the bank’s funds, explaining that the bank’s underground vaults and wastewater filled the bank and its level reached 110 cm above the vaults.
The investigation was surprised that the Libyan state did not officially announce the bank robbery, and Maker said in surprise, “They did not say that, no,” adding, “We also tried to communicate with them, but we did not receive any response from them.”
The investigation suggested that these funds are the same ones that the Libyan state requested in 2010 from the German Central Bank, worth 150 million euros in denominations of 100 and 200 euros.
Middle East affairs expert Peter Rudsick suggested during the investigation that Saddam Khalifa Haftar was the one who took all the money that was inside the branch of the Central Bank of Libya in Benghazi.
According to a previous United Nations report, gunmen threatened bank employees before getting away with more than 639 million Libyan dinars, more than 159 million euros, and 1.9 million US dollars, in addition to 5,869 silver coins, a combined total of nearly 500 million. Euros at that time.
In 2018, Al Jazeera reported on attempts being made to move “dirty money” to Türkiye. The channel stated, “Sources revealed to Al Jazeera that this money was transferred in several installments to Turkey, where attempts were made to exchange it.”
Rudsik said: “Through Turkey, then to Europe: This is how money began leaving Libya, and how the money laundering process began.”
“It appears to us that not only the Turkish mafia but also the Russians were involved in these banknotes and the precise process by which they started moving,” Maker added.
According to police data obtained by the investigation, the “criminals” sold the banknotes for about half their nominal value, depending on their condition.
The investigation pointed to the circulation of dirty banknotes in countries such as France and Belgium, suggesting that Estonia was taken as a main channel, because its bank officially provides the service of replacing damaged banknotes.
Source: ETV
2024-04-09 09:47:42