One of the hardest blows to the Libyan regime has come from a series of catastrophic investments

The crisis of Mu'ammar Gaddafi's regime began well before the civilian population questioned his leadership in the wake of other uprisings in the Arab world. However, it was a crisis for public finances caused by the heavy losses accumulated by the Libyan sovereign wealth fund in a series of operations managed by large Western financial institutions, including Société Générale, which would have cost the Tripoli regime something like 5 billion dollars . One of the most sensational holes is the one that opened in the 1,2 billion dollar portfolio of derivatives of the sovereign wealth fund which would have lost 98,5% of its value in an unspecified period of time. A series of other investments managed by BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan have caused further serious losses to Libyan public finances. The revelations come after a campaign by Global Witness to uncover the degree of involvement of some major international financial institutions with Colonel Gaddafi's regime.