The MV Freetown, from which Gaddafi’s brother-in-law illicitly made the US$1.4 million that was concealed in his personal Maltese bank account.
Afrimpex Ltd is a company with three Libyan directors and is owned by the Libyan Arab African Investment Company, with a minor shareholding belonging to Micawber Hotel of South Africa. Notably, Abughila does not feature among its directors. In 2008, Abughila requested that the Libyan African Investment Portfolio purchase a second ferry to meet the growing demand for the line's services.
The OCCRP discovered that LAIP agreed to invest US$4 million through its subsidiary, Libyan African Investment Company, for this purpose, and to become Abughila's 25% partner in a new version of Afrimpex established in Belgium.
The Belgian Afrimpex was supposed to procure and operate the ferry and pay 60% of annual net profits back to LAIP while retaining the ferry's ownership.
However, according to the OCCRP, the US$4 million intended for the ferry was deposited into Abughila's Maltese bank account instead of an Afrimpex account. Documents obtained by the OCCRP and an LAIP court filing in Belgium showed that the supposed US$4 million ferry was purchased through Abughila's Panamanian company for just US$2.6 million. One payment was made through his personal Maltese bank account, and the other was made through his Panamanian company.
Abughila then arranged for the Malta-registered Afrimpex Navigation Co Ltd to lease the ferry from his Panamanian company, Almuhit, for US$120,000 a year from 2010 to 2014. As a result, Abughila is accused of not only taking US$1.4 million of Libya government funds earmarked for the ferry's purchase and placing it in his Maltese bank account but also arranging for his offshore company to own the vessel and gain additional profits by leasing it back to the Malta-registered Afrimpex. Furthermore, Abughila is accused of failing to repay a US$7 million loan from a state fund.
However, due to the lasting confusion following Libya's civil war and disputes over who controls Libyan state investments, recovering the stolen funds has proven to be a challenging task.