US and British authorities are investigating whether Switzerland-based brokerage firm Tradition Financial Services used improper means to gain access to Libya and its sovereign-wealth fund.
The US probe is focused on potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which applies to bribery of foreign officials.
The brokerage allegedly hired relatives of powerful Libyan officials in an effort to win brokerage business from the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), and its brokers took Libyan officials to wild, all-expenses-paid parties in the Moroccan desert.
A spokesman for Tradition said it is cooperating with British investigators and not aware of U.S. investigations.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal)
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