When Abdelhakim Baayo registered to run in Libya’s first planned presidential election in 2021, he presented himself as a businessman eager to help steer the country out of years of war, political chaos, and economic breakdown. At the time, Libyans knew him mainly as the first candidate to formally announce his run – a symbolic step in a hopeful but uncertain political process.

Yet even as Baayo made headlines for stepping into the national political spotlight, multiple Libyan institutions were privately accusing him of serious financial misconduct. He was, at the time, managing a Spanish subsidiary of Libya’s sovereign wealth fund – a company called Alhammra Company Spain S.L. – and internal records obtained later by investigative reporters appear to corroborate allegations that he used corporate money for personal gain.

These revelations, drawn from internal documents, emails, invoices, and bank records obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), shed new light on the financial irregularities surrounding Baayo’s tenure. They also highlight deeper structural vulnerabilities within the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the country’s massive yet deeply troubled sovereign wealth fund.

Baayo’s political rise was unexpected but not unprecedented. Libya’s fractured politics have often produced surprise candidates – businessmen, militia leaders, tribal elites – positioning themselves as potential saviors of the state. But for many in Libya’s government institutions, Baayo was already a highly controversial figure by the time he announced his ambitions.

Alhammra, the firm he headed, is one of more than 550 subsidiaries under the LIA, which holds assets valued at roughly $68 billion globally. These subsidiaries span sectors ranging from energy to manufacturing to food supply chains, located across Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America.

Alhammra itself was created in Spain in........

© Blitz