Libya's sovereign-wealth fund said that it is cooperating with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in its ongoing investigation into Goldman Sachs Group Inc. over the securities firm's dealings with the fund when Col. Moammar Gadhafi was in power, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Libyan Investment Authority said that it also hired a law firm to discuss possible actions to recover losses it suffered from investments made in structured-finance products. Before the financial crisis, Goldman and other financial firms sold complex investments to Libya as officials there looked for ways to put some of the fund's $50 billion in assets to work. Many of the investments plunged in value during the crisis. The SEC has been scrutinizing Goldman's dealings with Libya's sovereign-wealth fund since the middle of 2011 over possible violations of U.S. anti-corruption laws. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bans U.S. companies from offering or paying bribes to foreign government officials or employees of state-owned companies.
