‘He never left home without his BOV platinum’ – a glimpse into Muatassim Gaddafi’s luxury life

His Bank of Valletta cards were reportedly inside his wallet the day Muatassim Gaddafi was caught by Libyan rebels who, months before in February 2011, had started a revolution to oust his father, dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Muatassim, 36, died in the Libyan desert, bearded and in his last gasps on a hospital bed, with a gaping wound in his throat on 20 October, 2011 after being captured at the fall of Sirte.

But before the Lieutenant Colonel met his fate, his life had been one of glamour and outright hedonism, hanging out with Dutch glamour model Talitha van Zon, the model Vanessa Hessler and having Beyoncé and Mariah Carey sing at his parties.

He bragged of having had a profligate $2 million-a-month spending habit, according to van Zon, who was famously evacuated to Malta with her arm in a plaster cast after jumping out of the balcony of a Gaddafi compound as NTC rebels attacked. She recounted her private world of luxury with Muatassim to the Daily Telegraph: dinner with Princess Caroline of Monaco, annual holidays in the Caribbean island of Saint Barts, flying by private Boeing, and holidays in Paris and London with several floors of the most expensive hotels booked for his friends.

Now Bank of Valletta platinum card statements released by the Wall Street Journal attest to Muatassim’s life of luxury and impulsive purchases. Thousands spent in city breaks at Dolce & Gabbana, Hermes, Emporio Armai and Versace outlets; picking up the €4,000 tabs at the Buddha Bar in New York or Tokyo’s Roppongi Chic; and spending €21,000 over four days for a Courchevel chalet, wining and dining.

The documents were exclusively revealed by the WSJ even though they form part of behind-closed-doors proceedings brought by the Libyan state against the unknown heirs of Gaddafi.

The Libyan state wants the Maltese Attorney General to identify funds held by the Gaddafis in the company Capital Resources Ltd, under a mutual legal assistance treaty.

Muatassim Gaddafi was the sole shareholder in Capital Resources Ltd, set up in June 2010 by auditor Joe Sammut – a reference point for Libyan businessmen today – to hold all assets under Gaddafi’s assumed name Muatasimbllah Muammar Abuminyar.

Also registered at the same address as Capital Resources was Mezen International, the company in whose name Muatassim was issued with a BOV Visa Platinum Card.

In Malta, payments of €50,000 were effected in one single deposit to zero his maxed-out credit card.

The Maltese Attorney General has no intention of releasing the cash unless the office knows there is a properly-mandated authority to receive the money. With Libya roughly split between the internationally-recognised Tobruk government and the ‘Libya Dawn’ rival in Tripoli, the money is going nowhere fast.

The Libyan Attorney General says that Capital Resources Ltd has assets far in excess of what it could have legitimately earned. Libya was said to have accused Bank of Valletta of having violated know-your-customer rules that should have prevented it from opening an account for Gaddafi in the first place.

“The bank stood to profit from the relationship because his deposits were a cheap source of funding and his massive credit-card transactions generated fees,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sammut, whose testimony was also given behind closed doors, said in court that he discussed the transactions with Bank of Valletta and then decided not to report them to Maltese authorities.

He remains a point of reference for Libyan businessmen fleeing turmoil in their country, housing companies like tourism and real estate company Mabco, run by businessman Jalal Baayou; Ferasa International Trading & Construction, owned by Zuhir Abdusalam Almuntasar; Lamar International Group, headed by Naser al Jerrari, Jawal, headed by Abdulmoneim Abulghasseim, and West Tripoli and Tripoli Stone Company. 

On his part, BOV’s chief executive, Charles Borg, said that neither the bank nor its executives are under investigation for any wrongdoing related to Gaddafi’s accounts. He said the bank applies strict due diligence on its customers.