Libya became so flush with cash that Bernard L. Madoff, the New York financial manager who stole billions of dollars in a long-running Ponzi scheme, approached officials overseeing the country’s $70 billion sovereign fund a few years ago about an “investment opportunity,” according to a State Department summary of the episode in 2010. “We did not accept,” a Libyan official reported.
qadhafi is funding his fight against the rebellion with
the cash that he horded before the crisis erupted. so it will be a while before he can't pay his soldiers and mercenaries. if only we were in that alternate universe where those officials had said yes to that deal and bernie made off with qadhafi's riches.
